


Trapped

by IcyPheonix



Series: VRAINS AU [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: AU, Gen, Tags Are Hard, Tags to be added, Yusaku's trapped in VRAINS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-06-12 07:06:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15334515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyPheonix/pseuds/IcyPheonix
Summary: SOL Technology discovers Playmaker's identity, and the next time Yusaku goes to log out, he's met with a nasty surprise, a virus that leaves him trapped within Link VRAINS.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The fic was inspired by this line in DarkZorua100's fic Neutral Ground.
> 
>  
> 
> _If that information were to get out, SOL Technologies would be on you in a heartbeat and I know first hand what they can do to someone who doesn’t give them what they want._

It was a rare, quiet day in Link VRAINS, everyone was going about their business as usual and neither GO Onizuka nor Blood Shepherd were anywhere to be seen. Yusaku wasn't sure if the bounty hunters had taken the day off (did they even _have_ days off) but he wasn't complaining. It made searching for the remaining Ignis and Bowman easier, even if their search had yielded a great big nothing.

Since their last meeting, Windy had sealed up the entrance to his pocket world and Bowman and his gang had apparently gone underground with the resurfacing of the Knights of Hanoi, who were only slightly less of a threat to Yusaku this time. They'd resurfaced, much to Yusaku's surprise, but had mostly kept their distance, so he wasn't sure what they were planning.

 

"What do you say we call in early?" asked Ai, elbowing Yusaku in a 'hint-hint' sort of manner. "We're not going to find anything more today."

Playmaker and Soulburner had come to a stop atop one of the buildings in Link VRAINS and sat down for a break, legs hanging over the edge as they stared out over the virtual world before them.

"I hate to say it but he's right," said Flame with a nod. "We've been at this all day with nothing to show."

"Soulburner?" Yusaku looked over at his friend, who'd taken a seat on the ledge beside him. "What do you think?"

"I think they're right," he said with a sigh. "We've been at this for hours and we haven't found a thing. Besides, we have school tomorrow."

It was true, they DID have school the next day and it was getting incredibly late, and if he slept through class there was no way Takeru would let him hear the end of it. Ever. He'd done so once after a particularly long mission and Takeru had teased him all day about it, as did Ai, and when news made its way back to Kusanagi, well, Yusaku vowed never to nod off in class again. At least not when someone was around to tattle on him.

And as it was he was tired anyways, and hungry.

"Alright, let's go then," he said as he stood up.

Soulburner grinned and vanished as his avatar flickered blue.

Yusaku took one last look out over the virtual city before preparing to log out. He touched his duel disk, and then everything exploded around him. A sharp pain flashed through him and his world went white.

 

Takeru stretched as he sat up, his back aching from having been slumped against an uncomfortable wall for several hours. Maybe he should request Yusaku put some pillows in there, or pad the walls if they were going to use his secret room for logging into VRAINS. Or at least a chair so they could sit down. Something to save his neck and back.

"You ready to go get something to eat Yusaku?" he asked, turning to his friend. "Yusaku?"

The teen was still slumped against the wall, head drooping to one side and arms hanging limp at his side. The screen of his duel disk was dark, even Ai hadn't returned yet.

Takeru frowned, something was wrong. It wasn't unusual for Yusaku to take a few extra seconds to log out, but something was clearly wrong. Although he looked as if he were logged in, the familiar light that should have surrounded him while he was logged in was not there.

"Yusaku?" Tentatively he reached out and placed a hand on Yusaku's shoulder, shaking him slightly. "Yusaku!"

Yusaku was as limp as a rag doll and as Takeru shook him he slumped forward, falling against his chest.

"Flame, what's going on? What happened to Yusaku?"

The fire Ignis folded his arms over his chest as he looked down at the unconscious duelist, face creasing in the closest impression of a frown he could make. Something had to have happened in the moments after they had logged out, but there was no way an enemy could have snuck up on him that fast.

"Do you think we should go back?" asked Flame. "If something happened to him and Ai they might need our help."

Takeru bit his lip before carefully moving to pick up Yusaku, lifting him up bridal style, one arm under his knees and the other around his shoulders. Holding Yusaku close he carried him out of the small room to move him to somewhere more comfortable.

"We should tell Kusanagi-san, maybe he'll know what to do," said Takeru as he placed Yusaku on his bed. "I hope."

 

Ai wasn't sure what had happened exactly, one moment Yusaku was about to log out, the next he was making the most data-chilling scream that Ai had ever heard. His form flickered and crackled, going momentarily red, and then he stumbled, stepping back and right off the edge of the building he'd been standing on.

"Playmaker, Playmaker!" Ai screamed frantically, but Yusaku didn't respond, now unconscious as he plummeted towards the ground of Link VRAINS. "Oh no! What do I do, what do I do?" If Yusaku hit the ground here and at this speed he was as good as dead, both in VRAINS and the real world. "Oh, I hope this works!"

The sound of howling wind sliced through the air as a whirlwind of data swirled into existence around them. The data storm raged around them like a fast moving river as Ai struggled to pull it back under control. Having Yusaku caught and tossed around like a rag doll inside it would do him no good either.

It dipped and twisted, swirling under Yusaku and catching him like a cushion and slowly, gently, carrying him to the ground and dissipating once he was on the ground.

"Yusaku, Yusaku!" There was a pop as Ai emerged from the duel disk, no longer being actually bound to it meant he could come and go as he pleased, he just generally chose not to. "Oh no oh no, this is bad."

They'd never had problems logging out before, and certainly nothing like this had ever happened.

"Well, I guess it's up to me," he said, cracking his fingers before placing his hands on hips. It seemed he was going to have to play the hero this time. "I'll just log us out and-" He grabbed Yusaku in order to log them out and the moment he tried the most unpleasant sensation since eating one of Hanoi's viruses rippled through his data, causing him to double over in pain. Ai groaned, sinking to his knees, he couldn't log them out either, something infecting Yusaku's data was preventing him from doing so.

"Oh Yusaku, what do we do?"

 

End of day clean up was probably the least fun thing about working in and owning a food truck, as it meant that Kusanagi still had work to do even after he'd closed for the day. He was in the middle of these final duties when the door to the hotdog truck burst open and Takeru stumbled through, panting heavily as if he'd run all the way there.

"Homura-kun?" He frowned, Yusaku wasn't wasn't with him, that was strange.

"K-Kusanagi-san," he gasped, gripping the edge of the door tightly so he didn't fall. His glasses were slightly askew and he looked, scared. "You need to come right now."

Kusanagi's frown only deepened. "Homura-kun what's wrong?"

"It's Yusaku. He won't wake up."

 

Somewhere, deep in SOL Technology's servers, behind layers upon layers of impenetrable security and encryption, three large chess pieces sat in a semi circle. In front of them flickered the image of the cyber duelist known as Playmaker, and every few seconds the image would change to that of a teenage boy with green eyes and two toned pink and blue hair.

"Yusaku Fujiki." The Knight's eye flickered as it looked at the hologram before them. "And we're absolutely sure that _this_ is the true identity of Playmaker?"

"We are," said the Bishop. "The source was double checked and verified, the account named 'Playmaker' belongs to one Yusaku Fujiki."

"How could a mere child have bested us for so long?" barked Knight, loud enough to make the entire room momentarily shake around them. "This is unacceptable."

"He will not be a problem much longer," said Rook. "I have received confirmation from the Grey Hats that everything has been put into place. The program will activate the moment that Playmaker tries to log out of the system. This time, he will not escape us and the Ignis will be ours."

"Good. I'm tired of being made a fool of by a boy," said Knight. "Have someone send a memo to Zaizen, it's time for the bounty hunters to round up our quarry. This time, we will not fail, Playmaker has no escape."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I make no promises on an update schedule for this lol
> 
> Also Grey Hat is a reference to 'Grey Hat Hackers'; not as malicious as a Black Hat(like what Revolver would be), but more willing to hurt people/do illegal things than a White Hat.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so we get a small look at what Yusaku is up to inside of Link VRAINS.

Yusaku groaned, every inch of his body ached, as if he'd been run over by a truck. Slowly he brought a hand to his head, rubbing it as he opened his eyes. He was flat on his back, on the ground, outside by the look of the blue sky above.

Wait, outside? Yusaku frowned, how had he gotten outside? He caught sight of his arm and his breath caught in his throat, it was clad in a familiar black and green. With a yelp he sat bolt upright, an action he quickly regretted as spot of pain flared in his vision and he doubled over. He was still in Link VRAINS, despite having gone to log out. What had even happened?

Well, there was no sense in just lying on the ground, he needed to log out, Takeru was going to be waiting for him.

"Yusaku!" Ai suddenly wrapped himself around his arm and hand as he raised it to log out, twisting around Yusaku's limb like a snake. "Don't try to log out again, please?"

"Ai, I don't have time for this, let go." He wasn't sure which was more startling, the fact that Ai was preventing him from logging out, or the fact that Ai was entirely out of his duel disc and quite a bit larger than usual.

The AI shook its head, "No, no. You're going to try and log out again, and you can't."

"I have to."

"No, I mean you can't. You literally can't," said Ai, looking up at him. "You already tried, and now you're down here. You're lucky, I had to save you. Again."

For the first time, Yusaku actually looked around and realized that he was in fact, no longer on the rooftop but on the ground far below.

"What happened?"

Ai shook his head, loosening his grip slightly. "I don't know. You went to log out, then you just screamed! It was awful. Please don't do it again."

Yusaku frowned as he looked at the Ignis, Ai was positively shaking as he held onto his arm, and his normally chipper voice cracked anxiously. "Then what do we do?" he asked.

Ai wrung his hands together as he unwound from around Yusaku's arm and landed on the ground beside him. "I don't know. I tried to log you out but, your data was bad, I couldn't do it."

"Bad?"

"Uh-huh. Really bad, I think you might have a virus."

"A virus?"

 

"Damn it!" Kusanagi slammed his fists onto the table in front of his hotdog truck computer as the words 'virus detected' flashed on the screen in front of him.

He'd all but flown over to check on Yusaku after Takeru told him what had happened and like he had said, he was unconscious, almost comatose. It reminded him at first of the victims of the Another Incident, but there were differences. The Another Virus had been created by the Knights of Hanoi, and while they had been spotted recently, Yusaku hadn't interacted with them, which was the other difference. In fact, aside from Takeru and their AIs, Yusaku hadn't interacted with anyone inside of Link VRAINS.

Leaving Takeru at Yusaku's side, Kusanagi went back to his computer, if Yusaku was still logged in then he should be able to find his data and find out what was wrong, and possibly log him out. And that was when things went sideways. He did find Yusaku, still logged into Link VRAINS, but the moment he tried to come in contact with his data all the virus protection software went on red alert. Something had infected Yusaku's data, something that his software could detect, but he had no way of fighting. He couldn't even contact Yusaku.

He struck the table again, why did it seem like he couldn't protect anyone? First his own brother, now Yusaku. No, he wasn't going to give up, not on Yusaku, not like this.

He couldn't log him out, but perhaps if he could analyze the virus's code he could find out who had done this to Yusaku, and just what exactly they had done to him. Know your enemy as it were.

Taking a deep breath he stood up to get some coffee, he was going to have a long, long night ahead of him and the last thing he needed was to fall asleep.

 

Takeru wished he could fall asleep, but he couldn't. He was too worried about Yusaku. He couldn't even bring himself to return to the place he was staying at, opting to crash on Yusaku's couch instead. On the off chance that he woke up, Takeru wanted to be near by.

As he lay on the couch he stared at the ceiling, hands folded on his stomach and glasses folded up on the coffee table.

He sighed as he shifted his position again, trying in vain to get comfortable so he could get some sleep, even a few hours worth, before he had to get up. But worry nagged at his mind, preventing him from finding any peace.

Takeru had wanted to log back in, to find Yusaku and ask him what had happened, to see if he was ok on that end. But after talking it over with Flame and Kusanagi it was decided that he would remain at Yusaku's side to keep an eye on him. Without knowing what had happened to Yusaku they couldn't be sure that Takeru wasn't about to walk into a trap and have the same thing happen to him when he logged in. And then Kusanagi found the virus and then it became very clear that it was safer if Takeru remained where he was. Plus, someone did need to keep an eye on Yusaku while Kusanagi worked, just incase.

Somewhere in the house a clock ticked away, the only sound in the dead quiet, now that the robo-maid had shut down for the night.

"I hate this, Flame," he groaned, rolling onto his back again with a frustrated groan. "I feel so, useless."

A sleepy eye opened up on his duel disk, which was sitting on the coffee table as well, and looked in his direction, the now active screen giving off a dull glow in the darkness.

"Why?" asked Flame. "It's not as if you knew this was going to happen and could have prevented it."

"But I can't do anything to help," said Takeru, dragging his hands through his hair. "There's nothing I can do now to help him."

"But you will, as soon as Kusanagi finds out what's wrong you'll be able to go and help him," said Flame reassuringly. "Besides, you're helping right now."

"How?"

"By being here. I'm sure when he wakes up Yusaku will be happy to know you were at his side."

"I suppose. I just wish I could do, more."

"I understand how you feel." Takeru turned slightly to look at Flame and the AI continued. "I felt the same way when my world was attacked. Both times. But that's why I am going to find the ones who attacked us and make them pay, that I can do. And once we know what's wrong with Yusaku, you'll be able to help him too."

Takeru sighed, letting his hands fall to his sides as he lay there, he hoped Flame was right, because sitting around doing nothing, it sucked and only made him feel worse.

"I just don't want to lose anyone else. I can't."

"I'm sure Kusanagi will find out what's wrong with him in no time."

"Yeah, I hope so."

 

All night the only sounds that came from within the hotdog truck were the sounds of a coffee maker as it pumped out cup after cup of coffee and the rapid clicking of keys on a keyboard.

Kusanagi grunted as he stood up, cracking the kinks out of his back before grabbing his mug and going for another cup of coffee. He'd lost track of how many he'd had that night, 4, 5? More than usual for sure, but he didn't want to fall asleep, not now.

Unable to help Yusaku directly he'd gone to the next best thing, trying to analyze the code of the virus for some clue as to who was behind it. It was meticulous, time consuming work, especially with how careful he had to be, the last thing he needed was to inflict the virus upon his system.

He sat back down with a fresh cup and looked back at the system. So far the only thing of note he'd found in the coding he'd scanned and deciphered was that the virus held an uncomfortable similarity to the Another Virus. On a hunch he dug out the program they'd gotten to combat the Another Virus, perhaps it could help with whatever it was that had infected Yusaku.

No dice. The coding might have been similar, but it wasn't similar enough for the recovery program to be of any effect.

Cracking his fingers he started his search again. There had to be some kind of identifying digital fingerprints in the coding that could help him trace it back to its creator. Every program, virus or otherwise, had them, deep in the artefacts of the code. Everyone coded differently so every piece of coding had unique, identifying traits to them.

"Come on, where are you? Who made you, spill your secrets to me."

The night dragged on and the sound of tapping on keys and gurgling of the coffee maker continued to be the only sound that could be heard from within the truck.

"This can't be, it can't be." Kusanagi stared at the strings of code on the computer screen in front of him in disbelief. "No, they didn't."

After hours upon hours of searching through the code and programming he stumbled across digital fingerprints that he'd seen before. And he really wished he hadn't seen them.

Taking a deep breath he pushed away from the computer before he did something drastic and ruined all his hard work.

SOL Technologies, this had been done by someone working for SOL Technologies. He almost couldn't believe that they would go this far. Almost, they'd already done something like this to Dr. Kogami, so it wasn't entirely unheard of.

He pressed his hands together under his chin in thought, if this was SOL Technology's handiwork then breaking it was going to be a lot harder than anticipated.

With a sigh he rolled his chair back to the computer, put aside the new found data and began drafting up a message. It was time to ask for some help.

 

Takeru yawned as he sat up, he'd finally managed to get some semblance of sleep that night, though it was only a few hours worth and he was pretty sure he was going to fall asleep in class.

Groping around the coffee table he grabbed his glasses and duel disk before standing up to go check on Yusaku.

"Yusaku?" He peered into his bedroom and frowned, Yusaku still hadn't woken up. So Kusanagi hadn't found a way to help him yet.

"I'm sure he's working as hard as he can," said Flame, as if reading his mind.

"I know." He rocked on his heels as he looked at Yusaku. "Maybe I should stay here and keep an eye on him."

"No!" Flame stretched out of the duel disk, pointing a finger at Takeru and poking his nose. "No. You made a promise to Kiku, about going to school. You can't skip."

"I-but–"

"No, no buts. You promised. Besides, I'm sure Kusanagi will check in on him. And in the meantime the maid is still here." Flame gestured to Yusaku's small robot-maid, Roboppy. "Yusaku will be in good hands until we return. Now, you're going to be late."

Takeru pouted at him before turning and letting his arm fall to his side as he left Yusaku's room. "You're starting to sound like my grandfather," he muttered.

"Are you saying I'm old?!"

 

"We're going to need to lie low," said Yusaku as he ducked into an alleyway, eyes trained on the sky. Go Onizuka and his bounty hunters were out, and in his current state, Yusaku had no intention of fighting them.

"That's going to be hard," said Ai. "You're very recognizable, everyone knows who you are."

"That sounds like a disguise is in order."

The corners of Ai's eyes creased in the approximation of a smile. "This sounds like fun. Can I help?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Literally right before posting this I had a great idea for what to do with Yusaku and Ai. :>
> 
> Next time, idk either Takeru at school or Kusanagi makes contact with help.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I asked the discord bots and they agreed that I should update this so, here you go
> 
> Fair warning I know like nothing about coding so just, roll with it.

For Kusanagi, checking in on Yusaku was, heart wrenching. It was like his brother all over again, his consciousness stolen away. Granted it was different this time, but the outcome was still the same.

"Don't worry Yusaku, I'm going to get to the bottom of this," he said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. He glanced momentarily at the telephone before shaking his head, no, he wasn't making that phone call yet. Though if his help didn't come through soon he just might have to.

 

Ema stretched out on her couch, hair pulled back into a ponytail and laptop balanced on her knees. With no news from Akira and nothing else to do it was practically a day off, the first one she'd had in a long time it felt like.

'I really need to make more time for me,' she thought as she stretched her arms over her head. "Now, let's see what's new today."

The computer pinged softly, a tiny one lighting up on one of the many apps on screen.

"Oh, well that's curious," she mused, tapping on the screen. Someone was trying to get in contact with her, that didn't happen often, usually it was the other way around. "Well, I suppose this could be interesting," she said, "I wonder who it is."

_Daddy Long Legs_

Oh, well, _that_ was interesting. She'd gotten in touch with him several times, but this was the first time he'd reached out to her.

"I wonder what he could possibly want from me," she wondered, opening up the message and leaning back to read it.

 

_From Daddy Long Legs_

 

_A certain little butterfly has become tangled in a web made by the sun. This spider can't break the web alone and could use the help of a ghost girl to get through._

 

_Consider this me calling in a favour, you owe me._

 

Ema read the message over several times, it seemed he was being purposefully cryptic, he wanted help with something, or rather someone, but everything was phrased like a riddle.

' _I guess he doesn't want this getting into the wrong hands,_ ' she thought, resting her chin against one hand.

"A little butterfly, he doesn't mean Playmaker does he?" She leaned back against her cushions, if Playmaker was in trouble that he couldn't get out of, and that Daddy Long Legs couldn't help him with, it had to be serious. She sighed, she had been intending to take it easier, but if this really was about Playmaker then she certainly couldn't let it go. She owed him big time for saving her life. And Daddy Long Legs was right, he'd helped her out several times so it was time to repay the favour and help him.

"I guess it's time to find out what's really going on."

 

"Here you go, enjoy your hotdog, have a nice day."

Kusanagi watched as another happy customer left with their lunch, before slipping into the back to check on the computers. He'd been almost obsessively checking things whenever he had a momentary break in customers, which was often due to it being a fairly dead day.

"Oh, what's this?"

A reply at long last.

 

_A spider asking a ghost to save a butterfly, what a strange request, but I'm listening. But I need more information first, about the sunlight web that's caught our little friend._

 

So, she'd picked up on his message after all, good. He glanced back towards the front of the shop to look for more customers before turning back to the laptop he'd set up.

 

_This spider has some threads of sunlight for you to look at. If you can find the sun in them, you might find them, enlightening._

 

"An attachment this time?" noted Ema as she read the latest message. A virus scan later and she opened up the mystery attachment, to find several files containing bits of a code. It seemed to be bits of code for some kind of program, a virus, though with what Daddy Long Legs had sent it was of use as one.

' _I guess 'threads of sunlight' must be referring to the code,_ ' she thought. ' _Which means there's something in here he wants me to see. What is it you want me to see Mr. Daddy Long Legs? What's so important about this code?_ '

She shifted her position on the couch to get comfortable as she began skimming through the code, hoping to find whatever it was he wanted her to find.

He'd mentioned the sun an awful lot in his messages, whatever it meant it was clearly important.

"A web made by the sun. Threads of sunlight. What are you trying to tell me? Why are you so obsessed with the sun?" She hesitated, hands hovering over the keys as she stared at the screen. "No, there's no way. It wouldn't be." Ema doubled down on her search, eyes scanning the screen as she looked through the lines of code. There was something familiar about the coding style, something she'd seen before.

Oh no.

No. No way.

Threads of sunlight. The sun. Sol.

Ema leaned back, moving her hands away from the keys as she took a moment to breath. Daddy Long Legs had spelled it out for her in the first message. The sun. Sol. The code was familiar because she'd hacked through similar ones before, it was coding from SOL Technologies.

So, SOL Tech had done something to Playmaker, and neither he nor Daddy Long Legs could get him out of it.

"I knew they wanted his AI but, to use a virus on him? They'd go that far?" She shook her head, she needed to confirm first that this was true.

Closing her laptop she stood up and grabbed her phone, a certain someone was going to need to answer some questions.

"Come pick up Akira, I know you have your phone on you," she muttered, rocking on her heels as she listened to the phone ring. "Don't you ignore me." From the other end she heard the telltale sound of the phone being answered. "Finally."

"What have I told you about calling while I'm at work?"

"Are you on break?"

"I am now. I told them it was my sister and I couldn't ignore it. What is so important that it couldn't wait?"

"Are you alone?"

There was a moment of silence followed by sounds of a door closing and locking. "I won't be disturbed."

"Good, I'm sending you something and I want you to look at it and then answer one question for me."

Akira sighed and she heard the sounds of him typing. "Alright, what is it you want me to look at? Some coding?" He mumbled under his breath for a bit before going quiet. "Where did you get this?"

"So that means you recognize it then?"

"Of course I do. I've seen more than enough coding from this place to recognize their codes anywhere. What is this, where did you get it?"

"It's a virus," there was a yelp from the other end and she rolled her eyes, "Oh relax it can't hurt you, this is just part of the coding. As for where, I'll tell you later, I have something to take care of."

"Wait, Ema don't hang up on m–"

Ema sighed, arms folded over her chest as she frowned. So, it was a virus of SOL Technology's own creation. But did Akira know? She shook her head, it didn't sound like it, besides, he worked in security, something like this wasn't his department.

Tucking her phone away she sat back down, opening up her laptop and starting a new message to Daddy Long Legs.

 

Akira sighed as he looked at his phone, that had to be the strangest thing Ema had ever done, and that was saying something. He turned his attention back to the fragment of code she'd sent him, part of a virus apparently. Why would they have created a virus? He supposed as a way to deter anyone from hacking the system, but surely they would have told him if they were implementing a new security feature. Security was his job after all.

Well, he was just going to have to ask her later, when we wasn't at work and wasn't interrupting anything.

"Ema you are an eternal mystery," he sighed, quickly deleting the code off his computer, though not before sending himself a back up so he could look it over later at home. He wanted a closer look at the code snippet she'd sent him, but not where his superiors might see it.

What on earth were they doing?

 

Ema sighed as she stared at the blank document before her. Face to face meetings were something she rarely did, it was just too risky, but this was a special case. It was going to be easier and faster if they could work together, in person. But how to go about asking was the real problem.

"How do I do this without scaring him off or making him suspicious?"

She pressed her fingers together in thought, she had to word this carefully.

 

_The sun threads were very enlightening indeed. Would it be to presumptuous of this ghost to ask to meet the spider?_

 

_A meeting? It would have to be public, I'm sure you understand why._

 

_Of course. Any ideas where?_

 

_How about Café Nagi? Tomorrow afternoon?_

 

_Consider it a date. And you're paying, Daddy Long Legs._

 

Kusanagi sighed, running his hands through his hair as he leaned back in his chair. So, he was finally going to meet Ghost Girl face to face. It meant his suspicions about the code had been spot on, it had been created by someone at SOL Technology. Which meant it wasn't going to be easy to crack, they certainly wouldn't be able to crack it by tomorrow.

Taking a deep breath he picked up the phone from the hook to make the one phone call he'd been dreading having to make all day. 

 

"Den City General Hospital, how may I be of assistance?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the cryptic messages should be straight forward enough to figure out but if you still don't get it just ask and I can tell you.  
> And yes I'm aware that real daddy long legs aren't technically spiders, but saying 'spider' sounded better here than 'arachnid', 'harvestmen' or 'Opiliones'.


	4. Chapter 4

"Kusanagi-san, where's Yusaku?"

 

It hadn't occurred to Kusanagi just how difficult it was going to be to tell Takeru about what he'd done. It seemed like such an easy thing to say, that because the virus might take longer than expected to crack he'd admitted Yusaku into the hospital. Yusaku was comatose, and with no idea when he would wake up he needed the kind of care that could only be found at a hospital.

But when Takeru turned up at the hotdog truck, wondering where Yusaku was, he suddenly found himself tongue tied, a lump forming in his throat. It wasn't that he was worried about how Takeru would react, but that saying it out loud made the reality and gravity of the whole situation suddenly sink in.

Yusaku was comatose and in the hospital, in a state not dissimilar to Jin's and as he explained to Takeru the words felt like lead on his tongue and it took every bit of self control he had not to crack.

 

Takeru hated hospitals. The quiet that filled them was unsettling, and the sterile smell made his stomach twist. The lack of any good memories about hospitals didn't help either. They were full of nothing but bad ones for him, ever since he'd ended up in one after the Lost Incident.

He clenched his jaw as he looked down at Yusaku, laid up in a hospital bed and hooked up to various machines. This wasn't right, wasn't right at all and wasn't fair.

"Homura-kun." Kusanagi placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and he relaxed just a little, unclenching his jaw. "We will get him back. I promise."

They stayed as long as they dared, until Takeru couldn't take it any more, couldn't take seeing his friend in such a state, and excused himself for air. Kusanagi followed soon after and found him leaning against the wall outside, arms wrapped around himself as he took slow, deep breaths, nails digging into the fabric of his shirt.

It wasn't till they were back to the truck that a tiny, throat clearing cough broke the tension and drew their attention to Takeru's duel disk.

"Flame?"

"I'm not sure how much it'll help but, I got a message from Ai a little while ago."

"What? How?"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

The fire Ignis flinched at their accusatory tones, before continuing. "We weren't alone at the time, I couldn't say anything. And as for how, as I explained to Takeru and Yusaku, we Ignis have our own ways of communicating, different from yours. The data virus won't affect that."

"What did he say?" asked Takeru.

"That they're both fine," said Flame with a nod. "A little banged up, but they're fine and trying to lay low for the time being."

Takeru felt his heart leap at the news, Yusaku may have been unconscious in the real world, but in Link VRAINS he was still conscious. It was a small glimmer of hope, but it was better than nothing. They still had a chance to get them back.

"Do they know what's going on?" asked Kusanagi.

Flame shook his head, "No, just that it's impossible for Yusaku to log out at the present. And Ai can't force a logout either."

"I see."

"That means we still have a chance to help them," said Takeru, voice shaking in relief. "That's good. That's good."

 

Modifying avatars wasn't unheard of in Link VRAINS, whether it was changing the avatar entirely or making simple modifications to the appearance.

Yusaku had never changed his avatar, even minorly, he'd never felt the need to do so before, his 'Playmaker' avatar was fine as it was. But Ai was right, in order to properly lay low he was going to need to change his appearance.

He just, really wished he'd thought about it before agreeing to have Ai help him with his new look because as it turned out, Ai was not the most creative mind out there.

"Don't you think is a little to on the nose?" asked Yusaku as he looked himself over, turning around as he stood in front of the mirror that Ai had provided for him.

His green and black body suit had been traded in for an outfit of various shades of purple and blue-greys. From head to foot he looked almost unrecognizable. His hair was styled slightly differently and was predominantly grey with pale violet bangs and his green eyes were now a deep gold. A grey mask covered the lower half of his face and neck. His whole body was cloaked in a deep purple hooded robe that fell down past his knees, covering the top and pants he wore underneath and the wide sleeves concealing his duel disk. Thin

He flexed a hand, taking in the fingerless black gloves on his hands and calf-high boots, also back and adorned with silver straps.

"What do you mean?" asked Ai, hanging off his shoulder.

"I look like you."

"You make it sound like that's a bad thing."

"We're trying to keep a low profile. How can I do that when I'm walking about looking like you?"

"Simple, because no one knows that you've changed. Why would they think that you're Playmaker?"

He hated to admit that Ai had a valid point. No one in Link VRAINS, least of all the bounty hunters on his tail, had any reason to think that Playmaker would have changed his avatar. And certainly not to something like this. He almost looked like a bounty hunter himself.

"But do I have to look like you?"

"You want to look cool don't you?"

"My question still stands."

"Come on, don't you think you look dark and mysterious?" asked Ai, letting go of his shoulder and hovering in midair. "Especially like this." He grabbed the hood of Yusaku's robe, flipping it over his head. "Taadaa!"

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"Now you just need a name. Something as cool and dark as your new look."

Yusaku frowned from behind the mask, "Why do I need a name?"

"Well you can't just introduce yourself as Playmaker right now?"

"Good point. Any suggestions?" Almost as soon as he asked, Yusaku regretted the decision.

"How about, End Game?" asked Ai, making a dramatic sweep with his arm. "Or maybe, The Dark Duelist?"

"On second thought I'll come up with my own name."

 

The only downside, that Ema could find, to choosing Cafe Nagi as a place to meet at was that it always moved around. And there didn't seem to be any pattern to where it would stop and set up for the day. Which meant that to find it for the meeting she was going to have to drive around looking.

At least it was a nice day, that was a plus she supposed. If it had been raining she might have considered asking to meet somewhere else, somewhere that she wouldn't get soaked, or asked for a rain check for another day.

' _Stardust Road? That's an odd place to set up,_ ' she thought as her bike rolled to a stop. She looked around, there weren't many other people around, and most of the people that were around were couples.

' _Well at least I shouldn't stand out to much,_ ' she thought as she tucked her helmet under one arm, slung her bag over one shoulder and went to find a place to sit down.

She had to admit though, despite the out of the way location, Stardust road had a nice view.

Leaning back in the chair she dug out her phone, time to find out where her Daddy Long Legs was.

 

Kusanagi looked up at the sound of a ping from the computer and tossed the cloth in his hand over his shoulder.

 

_I'm here, where are you?_

 

He took a step towards the front of the truck and glanced outside, looking at the few people that were out there.

So, one of them was Ghost Girl huh? Well, there was a quick way to find out who that was.

 

_Look behind you._

 

Ema looked at her phone, then swivelled around in her chair, eyes scanning the area. The only thing behind her was the hotdog truck and the vendor who was, waving at her? Wait, why was he waving at her? Was he hoping she'd buy something? Probably, she was taking up space out front of his food truck after all. Then again, the timing was, suspicious to say the least. Well, there was one way to check.

Grabbing her phone off the table she made her way towards him. As she neared he stopped waving, resting his forearms on the counter and leaning slightly out of the truck.

"How can I help you?" he asked, flashing her a grin.

She held up her phone so that the last couple of messages were on screen and held it out to him. "Was this you?" she asked.

He looked at the screen, then down at her. "Ghost Girl I presume?"

She lowered the phone and looked him up and down, this was Daddy Long Legs, this was who she'd been talking to all this time? She wasn't sure if she should be disappointed that he was literally nothing like she had expected.

"You're younger than I expected you to be," she said finally.

"I hope I'm not to much of a disappointment," he said with a slight laugh. "Ah, I think I owe you a something don't I? Coffee? It's on the house this time."

"Well, at least you know how to treat a lady."

"So, does Ghost Girl have another name I can call her?" he asked from inside the truck as he prepared a cup of coffee.

"Ema, Ema Bessho. And what about you, Mr. Long Legs, what should I call you?"

"Shoichi Kusanagi," he replied, handing her the coffee.

Ema nodded, "So, why don't you fill me in on what's going on?" she asked as she took a sip.

Kusanagi nodded before walking to the end of the truck and opening the door. "Why you don't step inside where we're less likely to be heard?"

"What about your business?" she asked. "Won't it be a problem if you close up in the middle of the day."

"Hasn't been a problem for me yet," he said. "Besides Yus-Playmaker's more important."

Ema gave him a curious look, the momentary slip up not having gone unnoticed. Had he almost used Playmaker's real world name? Well, whatever it was she was sure she'd find out, one way or another.

Cup in hand she stepped inside as Kusanagi set about closing up the stand. She was about to ask what he was doing when he suddenly moved aside a wall, revealing dozens of computer monitors.

"So, this is home base," she mused he pulled out two chairs. "Hidden in plain site, I like it." She grabbed one of the chairs, pulling up alongside Kusanagi and dropping her bag on the table. "So, Shoichi-san, why don't you fill me in on what's going on and what we're up against."

 

"I hope Kusanagi-san has found something out," said Takeru with a sigh, school bag slung over one shoulder. Even knowing that Yusaku was alright inside of Link VRAINS he couldn't help but be worried about him. "Maybe it'll be safe for me to go look for him today."

Kusanagi had all but forbade him from logging in on the off chance that his account had been compromised, he didn't need both of them ending up in the hospital. It made sense, but it was frustrating.

"Well, it looks like he must be doing some work," said Flame, peering out of Takeru's duel disk and towards the closed up hotdog truck.

"Maybe he's doing a scan on my account like he said he would," said Takeru hopefully. "If everything's alright maybe I'll be able to go find Yusaku." With a newfound hope he shifted into a jog and ran towards the truck.

Grabbing the handle he pushed the door open, stepping into the truck.

"Kusanagi-san I'm back and–" he stopped mid sentence when he realized that Kusanagi wasn't alone. There was someone else sitting in there with him, a woman that Takeru had never seen before. Since when did he ever have anyone over?

At the sound of the door opening both of them turned to look at him and Takeru made a soft squeak of surprise.

"I'm sorry I'll come back later," he stammered, stumbling out of the truck in a blind hurry. Whatever was going on he probably wasn't supposed to be seeing it. If the truck was all closed up like that it meant they didn't want anyone seeing, so it was probably something illegal.

"Wait, Homura-kun!" Kusanagi leapt up, knocking his chair over in the process as he ran to the door.

"A friend of yours?" asked Ema watching as he made his way to the door.

"Something like that." He turned back to Takeru, who was looking flustered as he stumbled away.

"I'm sorry, I didn't meant o interrupt!," said Takeru quickly.

"Homura-kun, you can come back. You're not interrupting anything."

"Who is she?" asked Takeru. "Is she a friend?"

Kusanagi nodded, "She's helping me with Yusaku."

Takeru looked past Kusanagi towards the truck, where the woman was standing, leaning on the doorway, arms folded over her chest as she watched them, then looked back to Kusanagi. "Does she...know?"

Kusanagi shook his head, "No. I was waiting for you to get back."

"You know, she looks familiar don't you think?" asked Flame.

"Does she?"

"Absolutely, I'm sure of it, I'd never forget a pretty face like that."

Kusanagi laughed and Takeru hid his face in his hand in embarrassment. "Please, shut up."

"Come on," said Kusanagi, "Why don't we take this inside?"

"Alright, and you, keep quiet," said Takeru, looking down at Flame. "I don't need you embarrassing me in there."

Flame just huffed before sinking back into the duel disk, the screen going dark.

"So, are you going to introduce me?" asked the woman as they entered the truck.

"Ah, Ema, this is Homura Takeru, Homura-kun this is Ema Bessho. As I said outside, she's helping me with the virus."

"It's nice to meet you Bessho-san," said Takeru with a polite nod.

She waved him off, "Please, that makes me sound so old," she said. "Ema is fine." She was quiet for a moment, looking him up and down almost thoughtfully before a tiny smirk tugged at her lips. "Homura-kun, you wouldn't happen to be Soulburner, would you?"

Takeru made a strangled noise of surprise, almost tripping over his own feet as he stumbled in surprise. "Wh-what makes you say that?"

"You're aware of what Shoichi-san is working on, which means it's likely that you know Playmaker in the real world. And Playmaker doesn't seem like the type to keep much company in the real world, aside from perhaps Soulburner. You also wear a duel disk similar to the one Soulburner uses, which could just mean you're a fan but I doubt that's the case." She shifted on her feet as she looked at him. "Am I close?"

Takeru looked over at Kusanagi, who nodded approvingly, it was ok to tell her. He opened his mouth to speak when suddenly, "I knew it!" "F-Flame!" The Ignis suddenly stretched out of the duel disk, pointing a finger at Ema almost accusatory. "I recognize that angelic voice. You're Ghost Girl aren't you?"

"And you have the cute Ignis," she teased, causing Flame to blush and Takeru to wish that the ground beneath him would open up and swallow him whole so he could get out of the conversation before it got any farther.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be thankful I didn't go with the original joke that popping into my mind during the face to face meeting of Kusanagi and Ema. I wasn't sure I could bring myself to go through with a "Daddy" joke. 
> 
>  
> 
> Next chapter, a slight POV switch. :>
> 
> Also, here's some rough concepts for Playmaker's disguise.
> 
> https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300851274642096129/470808155765342209/Screen_Shot_2018-07-23_at_12.22.47_AM.png
> 
> https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300851274642096129/470808589963886592/Screen_Shot_2018-07-23_at_12.25.02_AM.png


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uhhh, this chapter got away from me.   
> A lot.
> 
> But anyways here we go! Enjoy!

To say Aoi didn't want to make friends was a bit of a misnomer, because really, she did want to make friend. It's just very hard to make friends when everyone either wants you to try and use your connections to get them the latest news or gossip or tech out of SOL Technology, or wanted to gush over your older brother. There were somethings a younger sister did NOT want to have to hear about their sibling. 

And after cutting out all those kinds of people , Aoi was left with, very few choices in friends. There was Shima of course, though his near limitless energy made him a tiring person to be around and Aoi couldn't deal him for more than a few minutes at a time. Fujiki was even more socially isolated than she was, and after seeing him not so  gently blow people off who tried to talk to him,  s he decided it might be for the best to give him some space. Even the members of the Duel Club didn't reach much past simply being acquaintances.

So she found herself surprised when she felt concerned when Fujiki didn't turn up for school for several days in a row. He was many thing s , but someone who skipped class he was not. Even when he was sick he always came to class first  to pick up any work  before leaving and going home. Sure he may have slept in class frequently but she couldn't recall him ever  straight up  skipping class. 

And if that wasn't enough, Homura, who seemed practically glued to his side since his transfer (she still wasn't sure how that happened, Fujiki never befriended  _anyone_ ), seemed almost distracted. Throughout class she saw him staring out the window, so lost in his own mind that it took the teacher several t ries to get his attention. And when he wasn't being distracted he looked worried. 

It wasn't her business, it really wasn't, but she couldn't help but feel a bit worried, after all it had been three days since Fujiki had been to class.

Once again, Homura seemed, heavily distracted, though he was doing better at hiding it this time as the teacher hadn't caught on yet to the fact that he wasn't paying attention.

As the end of day bell rang she grabbed her bag and made her way over to Homura, the least she could do was ask, make sure that he ok.

"Homura-kun?" she asked. "Homura-kun?" Absolutely no response aside from a tired sounding sigh. "Homura-kun!" Aoi reached out, shaking his shoulder and this time successfully snapping him back to reality. 

"O-oh! Zaizen-san! I'm sorry," he stammered. "I didn't notice you there. Did you need something?"

"I just wanted to ask about Fujiki-kun. Is everything alright?"

"Y-yeah, he's just sick that's all. Very contagious, so he can't come to school yet," he replied quickly. 

Aoi had to hold back a frown, he was lying, about what exactly she couldn't be sure, but she could tell he was lying about something. "Well, I hope he gets better soon."

"Yeah, I hope so too," he said, almost sadly. 

"By the way," she said as she turned to leave, "Class is over."

As Homura made a beeline for the door, Aoi set out to find the teacher, if she couldn't get any answers from Homura then she'd get them from Fujiki himself when she brought his homework to him.

 

It wasn't just Fujiki and Homura w here thing s were weird either, even her own brother had been acting strangely the past couple of days. It had started after he'd come home from work the other day. While it wasn't unusual for him to bring work home, he seemed especially invested in something on his tablet, muttering to himself all the while. She tried asked what was wrong but he waved it off as 'work stuff' and that she needn't worry herself with it . And the fact that it seemed like Ema either wasn't answering his calls or was making them short, only seemed to deepen the mystery about what was going on.

She stopped in front of Fujiki's house, school work in hand. At least she could be sure he would be home, if he was that sick it wasn't likely he was going to be out.

Taking a deep breath she walked up the steps and knocked on the door, bracing for the moment it would open. Except it didn't. 

"Fujiki-kun?" she asked, knocking again, wondering if maybe he was asleep. Still no response and Aoi was beginning to worry, what if something was wrong ?

"Oh young lady? Are you friends with the boy who lives here?" asked a woman from the sidewalk , out walking her dog.

"Fujiki-kun's my classmate, I was just bringing him his homework, so he doesn't fall behind."

The woman's face grew grave, "Oh, so you didn't hear then?"

"Hear what?"

"He was taken to the hospital the other day. I saw the ambulance from my window."

Aoi felt her stomach twist uncomfortably, he'd been taken to the hospital? No wonder Homura had been so distracted and worried, if Fujiki was that sick she couldn't blame him.

"Thank you for telling me."

The woman nodded and continued down the street as Aoi sat down on the step, wondering what to do next. If Fujiki was in the hospital then it was serious, a lot more serious than Homura had led her to believe. So, why had he lied? Something fishy was going on, and Aoi was determined to get to the bottom of it. 

With a determined huff she pulled herself to her feet, stuffing the homework papers away in her bag and stepping off the front steps. Fujiki had said he was friends with the person who ran the hotdog truck  _Cafe Nagi_ , so if Homura wasn't going to answer her question, perhaps whoever ran the truck would.

If she could find it of course. It was time for some detective work.

Despite it always moving around, Cafe Nagi did seem to have several spots it frequented, and if Fujiki was in the hospital then there was a good chance the truck wouldn't be to far from there, that way his friend wouldn't have to go as far to check in on him.

Aoi chewed her lip as she swiped across the city map on her phone, that narrowed it down to the downtown region a few blocks from the hospital. It was going to be a pinch but she could probably make it before it got to dark.

With her bag held close she booked it down the road, she had to find out what was going on. Something was up and if no one was going to give her answers, then she was just going to have to get them herself.

 

Ema leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head with a loud sigh. "Hey, Shoichi-san, I have a contact that might be able to help us," she said, looking over at him. "At the very least, I want to know how much he knows about, this." Ema gestured to the computer in front of them and what they had been working on.

"Can we trust them?" asked Kusanagi.

"I trust him with my life. He's how I was able to confirm that this virus came from SOL Technologies."

"Who is your contact?"

"Akira Zaizen."

"Zaizen?! But he works for SOL Technologies!" 

Ema nodded, "I know I can trust him. He's not behind this, and he doesn't want to catch Playmaker any more than I do."

Kusanagi frowned, could they really trust Akira Zaizen? He was hunting Playmaker, he was the one behind the bounty hunters after all.

"I won't bring him in here if you don't want me to. I can meet him outside. But I need to talk to him, and if my phone is any indication, he needs to talk to me."

Kusanagi sighed, "I can't really stop you if you call up your contact while  we're  taking a break," he said.

"Good, because I think we could both use a leg stretch, before they fall asleep." She pushed away from the table and stood up, phone in hand and headed out of the hotdog truck and into the plaza they were parked in.

"Oi, Akira!" She paced about she spoke, standing just far enough away from the truck to  be  out of ear shot. "Do you have time to meet? We need to talk." She nodded along as he spoke, occasionally glancing back to Kusanagi, who'd opened up the front of the truck. "How about now? Ou t front of Cafe Nagi? It's about a block away from the hospital, in the plaza. Think you can make it? Good I'll see you in a bit then."

"So, how'd it go?" asked Kusanagi as she walked back, tucking her phone away. 

"He's coming. I suspect he wants to know what's going on as well."

"Don't we all." Kusanagi shook his head, "I hope you're right about trusting him."

 

As Aoi came to the plaza that the hotdog truck was parked in she was surprised to see that someone had gotten there first. Quickly ducking behind a tree she peered around, trying to figure out why her brother and Ema were there.

 

"This had better be about the other day Ema," said Akira. "You just hung up on me with no explanation."

"I know, I was in a hurry, But I promised you an explanation and I'll give you one," she said, gesturing for him to sit down. Akira glanced over her shoulder at Kusanagi, who was serving a customer and acting very much like he wasn't paying attention to them, even though he was, then back to Ema as they sat down . She sighed and shook her head, "Don't worry about him, he's helping me. He's the one who sent me the virus' code." She placed her forearms on the table and leaned forward slightly, "Akira, the virus was used on Playmaker."

"It-what?!" he almost jumped up from his seat, only just managing to restrain himself. 

"So you really haven't seen it before."

"No, not until you showed it to me the other day. What kind of a virus is it?"

"We're not entirely sure, it's similar to the Another Virus, but not similar enough for the repair program to work on it. So far all we know is that it's being used to keep Playmaker from logging out."

Akira rubbed his chin in thought, a look of concern on his face. "No one told me about this." He stopped and sat upright suddenly, hands on the table. "Oh no."

"Akira?"

He gestured to Kusanagi, "You said he knew about this right? About the virus and where it came from?"

Ema nodded, "He does, why?"

"I need to talk to him."

Ema studied his face for a moment, he was serious, very much so. "Alright," she said as she stood up. "Shoichi-san, do you have a minute?"

"I think I can spare a few," he said as the customer he  had been serving left. "What do you need?"

"Not me, him." She gestured over her shoulder at Akira. "He wants to talk to you, said it was important."

"Did he say what it's about?"

"It concerns Playmaker," said Akira, startling Ema slightly as she hadn't realized he'd gotten up and followed her over. "Since I assume you work with him."

Kusanagi frowned. "I do, why?"

Akira sighed, "The other day I received a message that Playmaker had been sighted and to, send out the bounty hunters. At the time I thought it was a bit strange, because  no one in my department had reported seeing anything . I have reason to believe that Playmaker is in serious trouble. "

"We should take this inside," said Kusanagi.

 

Aoi watched as her brother and Ema stepped inside the truck while the man running it closed it up. Darn, there went her chance to ask about Fujiki and what was going on. Well, if she couldn't ask then maybe she could listen in, surely the truck wasn't soundproof right?

As it turned out i t was, or it very nearly was at any rate. Aoi had to press her ear up to the door to hear anything that was being said, and even then the voices were muffled.

 

"Do you have any idea who at SOL Technology could be behind this?" asked Kusanagi, leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest.

"I don't. But if I had to guess, then someone from their hacking division. Creating a virus, taking down people that SOL considers a threat, that's the sort of thing they would do," replied Akira, shaking his head. "I knew they weren't the most, scrupulous company but, to do something like this, to a kid? That's just, too far."

"A kid?" asked Ema with a small frown. "Are you telling me Playmaker's only a kid?"

"He is. I don't know who his user is, but he's around Aoi's age."

Kusanagi snorted, "It's not like they haven't done this kind of thing before. "

"What do you mean?" asked Akira.

"Dr. Kogami. They did the same thing with him after the Lost Incident. It seems that was how they decided to, clean up their mess. Infected him with some kind of virus that left him comatose."

"How can you be sure? All the files said he died , " said Akira with a frown.

"Because I heard it straight from his son's mouth, from Revolver himself. There are no depths that SOL Technology won't stoop to get what they want." Kusanagi sighed, "How can we be sure that you didn't know about this virus from the beginning?" he asked. "You're the one with the bounty hunters on his tail, isn't this the sort of thing you'd want , Playmaker trapped an unable to escape? "

Ema started to protest but Akira shook his head. "He has every right not to trust me, and I can't fault him for that. But the fact of the matter is, I didn't know. In fact, I don't want him caught any more than you. The bounty hunters were not my idea, that was an, order, from the higher ups. Saying no was never an option." He sighed, "To be honest, all I wanted was to talk with him, to find out what it was he wanted. I owe him, Kusanagi-san."

 

Outside the truck, Aoi was beginning to think she probably shouldn't have been listening in. At first she wasn't sure why they were talking about Playmaker, had something happened to him? Sure he hadn't been seen for a few days but it hadn't been that long ago that he'd been absent from Link VRAINS for three months. And then they mentioned being left comatose and her stomach sank, that was definitely a cause for concern. At that point she stepped away from the tuck, having decided she'd probably heard far more than she was supposed to have heard. 

But there was something else nagging at her mind, something they'd said about Playmaker that had caught her attention. He was around her age, 16. Did that mean there was a chance she'd encountered his user and not even known it? Could they have gone to the same school?

Her thoughts were cut short by the sound of the door opening up in front of her.

"Aoi?"

"Ni i -sama!"

"W-what are you doing here?" asked Akira.

"I...I wanted to ask about Fujiki-kun," she said quickly. Her heart raced in her chest nervously and she felt her breath momentarily catch in her throat. "He's been out sick from class for the last few days, and when I stopped at his house to drop off his homework, I was told he'd been taken to the hospital." She bit her lip and scuffed at the ground nervously with one foot before looking past her brother to the hotdog vendor. "He said he was a friend of yours so I thought you might know if he was going to be ok."

The man sighed and gave her a soft, sympathetic smile, "I'm sure he'll be alright, he's in good hands now."

"Would I be able to visit him?"

"I think he'd be happy to know that someone besides me and Homura-kun w ere visiting him."

"It's getting late, and Aoi and I should be heading home," said Akira. "I'm sorry that I couldn't be much more help Kusanagi-san."

Kusanagi shook his head, "No, you helped a lot, thank you. But you should probably limit your involvement with us. I'd rather not be responsible for you losing your job, or worse."

"I'll keep him out of trouble, don't worry," said Ema.

Aoi kept her eyes trained on the ground as she walked, keeping a few steps behind her brother. She was in so much trouble, she knew it, there was no way she wasn't.

Akira didn't say anything though, glancing back once to make sure she was still there before sighing heavily. "Aoi, I'm not mad at you," he said, breaking the silence.

"You're not?"

"No."

She twisted her fingers together anxiously before speaking up again. "Can we, can we visit Fujiki-kun before we go home?"

Akira glanced at his watch, then back to Aoi, "Alright, visiting hours won't be over yet."

 

Aoi was expecting a lot of things when they got to the hospital, like Fujiki being asleep. But being comatose was not among the list of things she expected to see. 

No wonder Homura had lied to her, this was far more concerning than simply being sick. 

"I thought he was just sick," she said, covering her mouth. "What could have happened?"

 

Yusaku was pleasantly surprised to find that, Ai was right, with his new disguise people didn't give him much more than a second glance. He looked like just another duelist in Link VRAINS. 

Of course, he couldn't actually duel, not until he made another deck to use. While his disguise may have thrown off the bounty hunters for the time, the moment he duelled it would become clear who he was from his cards alone. Between the design of the duel disk and the cards he used , it would be easy for anyone to figure out who he was. Ai, to his credit, did manage to tweak the colouring of the duel disk, so if Yusaku did happen to uncover it it would be less likely to draw attention to him.

As Yusaku walked through the emptying streets of VRAINS, Ai wished he'd made the sleeves a bit shorter, being stuck in the duel disk meant he couldn't see anything, vision obscured by the dark fabric. The only way he could see anything was if Yusaku let him see, which at the moment, he wasn't.

"Where are we going?" asked Ai, creeping out just enough to peek past the edge of the sleeve and look up at Yusaku. 

"I'm not sure," he said and Ai sighed. "I've been trying to contact Kusanagi-san, but nothing's working, we're totally cut off. I just want him to know that I'm alright. I'm sure he's worried."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I sent a message to Flame earlier, so I'm sure by now Kusanagi-chan knows we're fine."

Yusaku came to a halt and Ai felt himself jerked about by the sudden movement. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?" he asked, lifting his arm.

"I forgot. It just slipped my mind!" Ai shrank back, retreating into the safety of the duel disk. 

Yusaku sighed, "Just, tell me next time you do something like that."

"I suppose it would be bad time to tell you I was talking to Flame earlier then?" asked Ai. "He and Takeru-chan were looking for you."

"What?! Then where are they?"

"Probably logged out now. We thought if Soulburner suddenly showed up and started talking to you it might draw to much attention,  might make people suspicious,  so he should wait until later, when there's fewer people."

Yusaku sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, sometimes Ai really tried his patience. "No more going behind my back, understood?"

"Fine."

Ai sighed to himself as he hid inside the duel disk, why was Yusaku so upset? He was just trying to help him so he didn't get caught. Everything suddenly jostled around him and he peeked out of the disk up at Yusaku, who'd tripped over his own feet and just barely caught himself from falling. 

It was strange, the AI thought, aside from exhaustion brought on by duelling he'd never really heard of humans getting tired while in Link VRAINS. And yet, Yusaku seemed, tired. 

"Yusaku?"

"It's nothing, I just need to sit down."

Ai scrunched his face up, he wasn't sure why, but he didn't believe him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was kicking my ass to write, and then I got distracted by Food Fantasy + other fic but eyyy it's done at last.   
> A lil short tho, but the next part feels better contained as its own chapter.

Takeru sighed as he dropped onto the bed, arms splayed at his sides as he stared at the ceiling. Being locked in a tiny room was one thing when you were effectively unconscious and logged into a virtual network, you couldn't feel the discomfort. Being stuck in a tiny room when you were awake however was an entirely different matter.

Upon logging out of Link VRAINS, as Flame and Ai had apparently decided that meeting with Yusaku while so many people were on might attract attention, he discovered that Kusanagi had apparently acquired another ally. He could hear their voices through the door but he didn't recognize the voice of the other man, and he really didn't think it would be a good idea to just stumble out of the room while they were all talking. So he waited, confined to the tiny room for what felt like an eternity till the man left.

Kusanagi had been very surprised to find out that Takeru had been awake through all that and wished he'd said something sooner.

Takeru wished he had too.

"Flame, are we going to be able to go back or not?" he asked as he lay on the bad.

The AI sighed, folding his arms over his chest. "I can't get in touch with Ai anymore."

"What?" Takeru sat up abruptly. "Why?"

Flame shook his head, "I don't know. Ai said they were going to find somewhere to lay low, and now he's not responding. That or he's ignoring me. Which is entirely possible."

Takeru's shoulders slumped, he wanted to go find Yusaku now more than ever, but it was getting late and there was no telling how long a search like that would last. He sighed heavily as he fell back on the bed. "I suppose tomorrow then."

 

Ever since visiting Fujiki in the hospital, and seeing his surprising state, something had been bothering Aoi. The entire situation felt, strange to say the least. What kind of sickness would make someone fall comatose like that?

The nurse attending to him hadn't been able to give them any information, mainly because they weren't family, but it didn't seem like they knew much more either.

But there was one other thing nagging at the back of her mind that wouldn't go away. The timing of it all was so, odd. He'd stopped coming to class at around the same time that Playmaker had stopped appearing in Link VRAINS.

She shook her head, it was absurd, there was no way Fujiki could be Playmaker. For one thing she wasn't even sure if Fujiki could duel. He'd certainly never done it any of the few times he'd shown up at the Duel Club. And yet the timing, it was either the freakiest coincidence ever or Fujiki was actually Playmaker. Aoi wasn't sure what she wanted the answer to be. If Fujiki actually was Playmaker, that was really going to make things at school awkward.

She sat bolt upright as a thought entered her mind, if Fujiki was Playmaker then it was likely that Homura was Soulburner. After all, Homura had transferred to their school not long after Soulburner appeared in Link VRAINS, and he started hanging around Fujiki at the same time Soulburner and Playmaker started teaming up.

She slapped her hands to her cheeks and shook her head, that was just silly, there was no way that Homura, of all people, could be Soulburner. That was even more outrageous sounding that Fujiki being Playmaker.

Aoi sighed, whatever the case was, both Fujiki and Playmaker were in trouble, though Playmaker was the only one she could really offer any help to. But still she had to know if she was right or not. But Link VRAINS was huge and there was no telling were Playmaker was, or if he'd even answer her if she did find him.  
Well, there was always Homura. She was just going to have to make sure he didn't bail on her.

 

"Homura-kun!"

Takeru stopped at the bottom of the steps to the school and glanced behind him, he could have sworn he'd heard Aoi calling his name. Sure enough there she was, standing in the doorway and clutching her bag tightly.

"Zaizen-san?"

She started to speak but stopped as another voice cut in.

"Oi, Zaizen! Transfer student! Are you going to come to the Duel Club today?" asked Shima, causing Takeru to jump as he seemingly materialized beside him.

"I-uh," Takeru rubbed the back of his head as he took a step back, away from Shima and the school. "I actually have something I need to do," he said. "Sorry, maybe another time."

He turned around and got about only a few steps before he heard the sound of feet on the stairs behind him and felt a sudden tug on his arm. Takeru glanced over and made a strangled noise of surprise when he saw Aoi had wrapped her arms around his arm.

"Z-zaizen-san?"

"Homura-kun and I already have plans" she said, still holding onto his arm as she practically dragged him away.

Takeru stuttered as Aoi dragged him away from the school, and a complaining Shima. What on earth had brought this on? They certainly didn't have plans so what was she up to? Surely she wasn't doing thing just to get out of going to Duel Club right?

"Um, Zaizen-san?"

"I just want to talk to you," she said, loosening her grip on his arm slightly. "Follow me."

Resigned to his fate, Takeru followed her down the road to where ever it was she wanted to take him.

"So uh, what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked when they finally came to a stop.

Aoi looked around as she released his arm, as if looking for someone, before turning to face him.

"Homura-kun, are you Soulburner?"

Takeru gaped, voice catching in his throat. How had she managed to come up to that conclusion? Did she actually know?

"What makes you think that Zaizen-san?" he asked, trying to hide his nervousness. He really didn't want his cover blown like this. "I mean, how could I possibly be Soulburner? That's ridiculous."

Aoi held him tightly in her gaze, eyes almost boring into him. "Because, Fujiki-kun, is Playmaker, isn't he?"

"That's some theory you have Zaizen-san," said Takeru, trying to think of a way out of the situation at hand. "I mean, Yusaku being Playmaker, that's even more ridiculous than me being Soulburner."

"But it's true isn't it?" she asked, taking a step towards him.

"What makes you say that?" asked Takeru.

"Because you're lying," said Aoi. "And you're not very good at it."

Takeru looked around nervously, could he actually tell her the truth? Sure she was _the_ Blue Angel but was it still safe to tell her the truth about who he was? About who he AND Yusaku were? There wasn't anyone else around, which was probably what she wanted.

His duel disk crackled and Takeru quickly tucked his arm behind his back and clapping his other hand over the screen of his duel disk, praying that Flame would keep quiet and not blow his cover, as he'd done with Miss Bessho.

"And what if we were?" he asked, shifting about where he stood. "If I was Soulburner, and Yusaku was Playmaker what would you do?"

"I want to help!" Aoi clutched her school bag tightly as she looked up at him. "I know Fujiki-kun is in trouble, and I know Playmaker is too. And I want to help, whether they're the same person or not."

Takeru was thinking about how to respond when he felt something wiggling under his hand, almost slithering against his fingers. He yelped in surprise and fear, yanking his arms out from behind his back at the same time.

"That's, that's..." Aoi stared at his duel disk and Takeru turned his attention to it, and to Flame, who was peering out of the screen.

Takeru sighed, running a hand through his hair, well cover blown, again. "What did you do to my hand?" he asked with an accusatory tone. "Did you lick me?"

"Of course not, that would require a mouth." Tiny, wiggling fingers poked through the screen and Takeru sighed, yeah of course that was it.

"So you _are_ Soulburner," breath Aoi. "I can't believe it."

"What do you mean?" asked Takeru. "You seemed pretty certain a moment ago."

"That was, I was, honestly I didn't think you really were. I thought it was a long shot. But that-that's an Ignis. One of the ones my brother's looking for."

"And if it's all the same to him and you, I'm quite happy where I am," said Flame, sticking his head out ever so slightly.

"I wanna know how you figured this out," said Takeru, rubbing the back of his head. "I thought we kept our tracks pretty well hidden."

"Can we go somewhere else to talk?" asked Aoi. "Somewhere less likely to be heard?"

Takeru nodded, "I think I know a place."

 

Yusaku groaned, bringing a hand to his forehead as he sat up. His skull was pounding in the worst way possible and his body felt stiff.

"Yusaku!" Ai's voice sounded from his duel disk, excited and relieved. "You're awake! I was so worried!"

"What happened?" he asked, grunting as he forced himself to sit up, his body protesting the action.

Ai wilted and twisted his hands together nervously. "Well, you sort of, collapsed. After you sat down you were really out of sorts and tried to stand up."

"I collapsed?" He didn't remember that, in fact he didn't remember much past walking to find somewhere to sit down. Everything was a fuzzy haze, which was strange. He hadn't done anything exceptionally strenuous over the last little while, not even a duel, so why did he feel like this? He glanced around and frowned behind the dark mask, where was he? It wasn't anywhere in Link VRAINS that he recognized.

"Ai, where are we?" he asked finally.

"Ehe, about that..." Ai rubbed the back of his head as Yusaku heard the soft, telltale sound of boots on tile coming from outside the room he was in.

"So, you're awake at last Playmaker," came a familiar voice and Yusaku felt his breath catch in his throat as the owner of the familiar voice stepped into the doorway.

"Revolver."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The downside to Aoi's plan is now Shima is convinced that she and Takeru are secretly dating. Whoops.


	7. Chapter 7

Two days earlier, at the Hanoi hideout...

 

_Vyra laced her fingers together under her chin as she stared at the screen in front of her, and wondered if she should tell Revolver about the latest piece of information to cross her screen._

_Ever since their return they'd been monitoring a number of things and people, mainly to keep tabs on those of interest. But this..._

_A hand came to rest on her shoulder and she jumped slightly till before realizing who it was._

_"Do you think we should tell him, Faust?" she asked, looking up at the bearded man then back to the image on screen. "I know he'll be distracted if he knows."_

_"But he'll be upset if he finds out we knew but didn't tell him," finished Faust with a nod. "And he will find out, one way or another."_

_On the screen before them was a doctor's report of a patient recently checked into Den City General hospital, Fujiki Yusaku._

_It seemed he'd been admitted to the hospital in a rather unusual condition, comatose with no explanation why. Of course, while the doctors couldn't figure out why but, Vyra had a few hunches. This was after all, Playmaker's user they were talking about, it something had caused him to fall comatose, it likely had to do with Link VRAINS. More specifically SOL Technology, as they were his main enemies at the moment, the Knights of Hanoi hadn't even approached him yet and the mystery group had seemingly gone into hiding. The real question was what exactly, had they done to him._

_"So how are we going to tell him?" she asked._

_"We could always let someone else do it." Genome leaned back in his chair, swivelling about lazily. "Someone he's likely to listen to and not get angry at."_

 

_"I fail to see why I have to be the one to deliver this information to Revolver-sama," said Specter with a frown. "Any one of you are equally as able to do it."_

_"Yes, but he''ll take it better if it comes from you," said Genome. "You are his friend."_

_"What is so important he needs to know anyways?" In response, Vyra turned the data pad around so he could see the screen. Wordlessly his frown deepened as he saw the information displayed on it. "Do we really need to tell him?" he asked. "Something like this will take his focus away from the task at hand."_

_"Would you rather he find out after the fact and learn that we kept it from him?" asked Vyra, crossing her arms over her chest._

_Specter was quiet for a moment before snatching the pad from her hand. "Fine, I'll tell him."_

_Clutching the data pad he strode off down the hall to find Revolver, he had a pretty good idea where he was._

_"Revolver-sama?" He knocked on the door to the room before opening it slightly and peering inside. "I know you don't wish to be bothered but–"_

_"Then why are you here?"_

_Specter cleared his throat, "Well, as I was saying. We have some new information that you might find of interest."_

_"Does it have anything to do with the location of the Ignises?"_

_"Not exactly but–"_

_"Then I'm not interested."_

_Specter sighed, yeah he'd expected a response like that. Well as the saying went, there was more than one way to skin a cat, or in this case, get Revolver to listen to him. "Oh well, I suppose I was wrong. I thought you'd want to hear about our recent intel on Playmaker."_

_This caught his attention and Revolver turned slightly to face Specter._

_Bingo._

_"Something happened?"_

_Specter nodded, taking a step into the room and holding up the data pad. "It's all in here. Seems his user, Fujiki-kun, was admitted to the hospital last night, comatose. And no one knows why."_

_Revolver snatched the data pad from him, scanning what was written on it._

_"And no one's seen Playmaker in VRAINS since then. He's probably in hiding." He pressed the data pad into Specter's hands before turning on his heel. "I'm going out," he said before vanishing in a flash of blue data._

_Specter sighed, somehow he felt like he should have expected a reaction like that. It was strange, although his face was generally unreadable Specter could swear that Revolver had looked almost concerned._

 

_As Revolver approached the main hub of Link VRAINS his avatar flickered blue for a moment before changing. If he was going to walk through the streets of VRAINS to search for Playmaker he couldn't go around wearing the face of the leader of Hanoi, new avatar or not, that was just common sense._

_His avatar was fairly plain and average looking, bearing a passing resemblance to his real life face, only his white hair was now ink black and his silver-blue eyes were a rich gold colour. Among all the flashy, fancy avatars his looked almost normal, barely worth giving a second glance, which was all he could ask for._

_He was certain that by the time he returned there would be questions about what he was doing, and why he was doing it, and really, he wasn't sure he had answers._

_It was fairly obvious that SOL Technology was behind this and thinking that they had gone and done this to someone again made his stomach twist in uncomfortable ways. He wasn't worried, that was just silly, no it was something else. A sort of, rage, at the idea that SOL Technology had done to Yusaku what they'd done to his father._

_Yusaku was still his enemy, at least as long as he sided with that Ignis, but at the same time he wanted to help, if only because they shared a common enemy in SOL Technology. And while he saw the irony of the situation given his past deeds, he didn't want to see SOL Technology do to someone else, especially Yusaku, what they'd done to his father._

 

_Scouring the virtual city was one of those things that was easier said than done. There were a lot of users and if something had happened to Yusaku it was likely he was going to want to lie low within VRAINS, and if he was smart he wouldn't use the avatar Playmaker. He was looking for a virtual needle in a haystack, and he didn't even know what the needle would look like._

 

_It was a flash of deep violet that finally caught his attention. After several days of searching and turning up nothing, Revolver came to a halt at the sight of a familiar shade of violet moving through the sea of users. He'd know that colour, especially combined with black, anywhere, it was the same as that darned Ignis._

_Picking up the pace he headed after them, trying not to lose track of them. He needed to be sure before approaching, the situation would be very awkward if it turned out it was just another ordinary user with a flashy avatar. Of course, trying to keep from losing sight of them was easier said than done as the moment he so much as glanced away they were gone, swallowed up by the crowd._

_He cursed to himself, how could he be so careless as to lose sight of them like that? Dropping all pretenses of politeness he took off in the direction he'd last seen them going, maybe he'd be able to catch another glimpse of them._

_The number of users online dropped as the hours ticked by and still Revolver couldn't find the mystery user he'd spotted earlier. Maybe they weren't Playmaker after all and he was following a dead-end lead. Perhaps they'd already logged out. From the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of purple and black and turned just in time to see them round a corner. He was sure of it, that was Playmaker, the colour and design, it was clearly modelled after his Ignis._

_The last thing Revolver expected when he caught up with Playmaker was to find him collapsed in a heap, but as he rounded the corner that was exactly what he saw. Playmaker, clad in a violet and black robe, was collapsed in a heap on the ground, and his Ignis was shaking at his shoulder frantically._

_Revolver's breath caught in his throat, if there had been any doubt on what had been done to Yusaku, there wasn't any more. This was all the proof Revolver needed._

_Striding forth he removed his disguise, the area around his avatar flickering momentarily blue. The heels of his boots clicked on the ground and the Ignis looked up at him before diving back into the duel disk with a yelp._

_"Re-revolver! Before you try to delete me hear me out! This-"_

_"-was SOL Technology's doing," finished Revolver, rolling Playmaker over._

_"Oh? How'd you know?"_

_"It was obvious, just as obvious as his disguise." Slipping his arms under Playmaker he lifted him up before they vanished in a flicker of blue pixels._

 

Yusaku narrowed his eyes, watching as Revolver entered the room. He was pretty certain that it was Revolver despite the shocking difference to his avatar. The once deep red hair had been replaced by silver with shocks of crimson framing his face. The once full face mask was replaced with what looked to Yusaku like a helm, only shielding the top of his face. As Revolver turned his gaze to Yusaku he realized that his once blank, gold eyes were no more, now shining like silver. In fact, he looked less like _Revolver_ and more like Ryoken.

"Since you're awake that means you're doing better, Playmaker," said Revolver.

"I have questions for you," said Yusaku. "One, how did you know who I was? Two, you said before your mission was to eradicate the Ignises and yet Ai is still here, how come you didn't destroy him while you had the chance? Three, why did you save me and bring me here? The last time we met you said we were enemies."

Revolver cleared his throat slightly, looking away from Yusaku. "One, your current avatar resembles your Ignis, anyone who knows you could make that connection. Two, my mission is still to destroy the Ignis, however there is no satisfaction to be had in simply taking it from you when you are in such a state. I have every intention of beating you and taking the Ignis. Three," Revolver paused a moment to he looked at Yusaku before turning away again. "SOL Technology did this before to my father and it killed him. Seeing them do this again to someone else is, unpleasant. Whatever our differences, I refuse to allow them to do this again."

"So you were concerned," said Yusaku.

"No!" replied Revolver quickly. "They simply, turned this into an unfair fight and I am making it fair again. I'm sure you've noticed by now, the effects that being in here for so long is having on you."

Yusaku nodded, "I felt tired and I collapsed. That's never happened, outside of a duel." He flexed his hand before turning his attention back to Revolver. "But I don't feel tired any more. Why?"

Revolver gestured to what Yusaku had been laying on. "It's something we came up with a while back to combat this very thing."

"But why, why does it happen?" If he was going to be stuck in Revolver's lair, the least Yusaku figured he could do was get some answers out of him. Starting with what was happening to him.

"The simple version is you're suffering from mental fatigue. You, your mind specifically, can't rest properly while logged in."

"So the longer I remain logged in, the more exhausted I get," said Yusaku.

"Like pulling an all nighter at the computer!" piped up Ai.

Revolver nodded, "Precisely. Under normal circumstances you would simply log out and rest. I told you didn't I?" Revolver tapped the stone like object Yusaku was sitting on. "Considering our, line of work and my father's condition, this was a problem that we needed to deal with. You were, in a way sleeping. So you should be good to go for another day or so."

"That seems awfully considerate of you," said Yusaku. "It's a little suspicious."

"It's called spite. Saving you is something SOL Technology would hate."

Yusaku wasn't sure he believed that was really the only or entire reason that Revolver had saved him, but it was clearly all he was going to get out of him.

Revolver, who had been pacing about in front of Yusaku while talking, came to a stop in front of him and fixed him with a sharp gaze. The tiniest of smirks tugged at his lips and he looked as if he were about to say something when a throat clearing cough came from the door way into the room.

"Sir, if I may be so bold as to interrupt."

For a moment, Yusaku swore a flicker of disappointment flicked across Revolver's face as he turned to look at Specter, who stood in the doorway, one arm folded up behind his back. "Specter..."

"I thought I would come and see how our...guest...is doing," he said. "I see he seems to be doing better."

"I'm fine," said Yusaku as he stood up. "So, am I a prisoner here?"

"On the contrary, you are quite free to leave, but then again, would you want to? As you are it's likely you'll only last a day or so before needing to rest again."

"Sounds like a prisoner to me," said Yusaku.

Revolver shrugged and gestured for Yusaku to follow him as he strode towards the door. Deciding he didn't have much of a choice, Yusaku fell into line behind him, with Specter following close behind not long after.

 

Takeru wasn't sure how it had happened exactly, but Aoi's house was not where he'd expected to end up after they left to find somewhere to talk. Especially since he had been planning on going to Cafe Nagi like usual. But somewhere along the time that had not happened and he found himself shifting nervously as he sat on the couch in her very large living room.

"Don't worry, my brother won't be home for a while, so we won't be overheard," she said as she sat down beside him.

"Or seen," said Flame, emerging once more from Takeru's duel disk.

"So, Soulburner," said Aoi, looking from Flame to Takeru.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, you caught us now."

"So that means Fujiki-kun really IS Playmaker then."

Takeru nodded and Aoi twisted her fingers together, chewing on her bottom lip. "I suppose, it's only fair, that I tell you the truth, since I know who you are."

"That you're Blue Angel?"

Aoi paused and just stared at Takeru who gave her a meek smile. "We...might have already known who you were," he admitted.

"You knew." Takeru nodded. "How long?"

"Well, how long has it been since I transferred in?"

Aoi sighed and hung her head, shoulders slumping. "How many people know?" she asked quietly.

"Just Yusaku and I and Kusanagi-san, and of course these two," said Takeru, gesturing to Flame. "We haven't told anyone else, I promise."

Aoi slumped back against the couch, running her hands in her hair. "Well, I suppose that makes this a lot easier to talk about then," she said.

"So, how much do you already know?" asked Takeru.

 

"Aoi? I'm home!"

Takeru froze as a man's voice interrupted their conversation; a voice he realized only moments later that he recognized. It was the same voice, albeit no longer muffled this time, that he'd heard talking to Kusanagi and Ema the other day.

"Do you have someone over? I noticed some extra shoes at the...door." Akira's voice trailed off as he stepped into the living room, gaze falling on Takeru who instantly wished he could hide.

"Nii-sama! This is Homura-kun, he's the new transfer student at school," said Aoi quickly, jumping to his defence. "We...we were working on homework."

"It was, closer than going to my place," said Takeru with a weak smile, hoping Akira would believe them.

He quirked an eyebrow curiously as he looked between the pair. "Well, it's nice to meet you," he said finally.

"A pleasure to meet you too," said Takeru.

As Akira stepped out of the room Aoi grabbed her bag and then Takeru's arm. "Come on, before he comes back."

"Wait, what? Why? Where are we going?"

"My room. Because we're not going to get any privacy out here now that he's home," she said, tugging on his arm. "Come on, before he gets back and starts asking questions."

Takeru quickly grabbed his bag as he stumbled after her and down the hall. "But, I mean, wouldn't be helpful to us?"

"Oh god no. If he knew what we were up to he'd stop us. There's no way he'd want us to get involved or let us."

"So we're going behind his back?"

"Yes."

"I'm not sure this is a good plan but, alright."

They were right at the door to her room when Akira's voice sounded from the living room.

"Aoi?"

"We're just going to study in my room!" she called back.

There was a pause then, "You better keep that door open!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had the entire first half of this written and had just brought Specter in to keep Revolver from running off with my script (cause yes he was going to say something to Yusaku and it was probably going to seem, flirtatious and now is really not the time for THAT, esp in front of Ai lol), and then Revolver shows back up in the show with a hot new look.   
> Thanks for that Revolver. :/


	8. Chapter 8

"You know, there's no reason to keep up the disguise here," said Revolver, as Yusaku followed him through the hall of the Hanoi base. "SOL Technology isn't here, and everyone here already knows who you are."

Yusaku's only reply was a slight 'hmm'. He still wasn't sure what to make of the fact that he was deep in the heart of Hanoi. He was, for all intents and purposes at the mercy of his enemy, as Revolver was the only reason he wasn't in a worse situation. And yet, they were helping him, or Revolver was at any rate, Yusaku doubted that the rest of them were involved in this.

"Where are we going?" asked Yusaku. "You haven't told me anything."

"Vyra is curious about your virus," he replied.

"Kusanagi-san is already working on it."

"And yet you're still here. He clearly hasn't made any progress on breaking it. But perhaps my people might."

Yusaku narrowed his eyes, "And how can I be sure they won't do anything to the Ignis?"

"You have my word, the only thing Vyra wishes to investigate is the virus."

"Yes, your word, but not hers, or the rest of the Knights."

From behind them Yusaku heard Specter laugh slightly.

"But they work for me," said Revolver, clearing his throat with a sharp cough, a sound that halted Specter's laughter. "So if I tell them not to touch the Ignis then they won't. Is that good enough for you?"

Yusaku looked down at Ai, whose head and shoulders stuck out of the disc, forearms resting on the edge as he kept an eye on the surroundings. Yusaku didn't want to risk Ai's safety, but at the same time if they could help him remove the virus, it was help he couldn't turn down.

"Fine," he said. "But if they do anything to Ai..."

"Noted."

The room Yusaku followed him into was large and spacious, and much like the rest of the place that he'd seen, very plain.

"I see you brought our guest for a visit," said Vyra, turning around in her chair. "So, why don't you fill us in on what's going on?" she asked. "There's only so much we can get from the hospital records after all and I would like an idea of what I'm going to be working with before I go in."

Yusaku sighed, there really wasn't anything for him to lose, and no harm to be had by telling them.

 

Vyra was quiet as she listened to Yusaku explain, nodding along. When he finished she indicated for him to put his duel disk down on the table.

"It's the easiest way to scan for the virus," said she when he gave her a skeptical look. "I'm still a doctor after all. I want to help you."

After a moment of thought, Yusaku removed his duel disk and set it on the table.

"From what you've said, it sounds like the virus we engineered," said Genome.

Yusaku nodded, "But the anti-virus program doesn't work on it. Kusanagi-san tried."

"Sounds like SOL Technology's been busy then."

"Let us hope this is just a modified version of the Another virus," said Vyra with a tight frown. "And not something closer to what they inflicted upon Dr. Kogami."

"How long will it take?" asked Yusaku.

"That all depends on the virus and its coding," said Vyra as she turned back to the computer.

 

Takeru sighed as he draped himself across the table inside the hotdog truck with a sigh.

"I can't believe we went all the way to Zaizen-kun's house only to end up back here."

"Well Akira-san didn't give us much of a choice," said Flame.

Akira had, not so subtly been keeping an eye on them, making excuses after excuses to stop by and check in on them, and after Aoi threw a pillow at his head he sent one of the robots to do it instead. Eventually it got to the point where Aoi decided it would probably be for the best if they went their separate ways for the time being and continued the discussion inside Link VRAINS, where her brother hopefully couldn't spy on them.

"Alright," said Kusanagi, handing Takeru his duel disk back, "You should be ready to go now."

"So, what did you put in there anyways?" asked Takeru as he took his duel disk back, strapping it to his wrist.

"A program Ema and I worked on. If you can get it to Playmaker we should be able to re-establish communications with him," said Kusanagi. "If we can do that it might be a help in cracking this virus."

"I just hope we can find him," said Takeru as he made his way to the small room at the back of the truck. "He's really good at hiding it seems."

"If anyone can find him you can," said Kusanagi with a smile. "Just, come back safely, alright?"

Takeru smiled, "Don't worry."

Kusanagi watched as the door to the small room closed and sighed heavily, he wasn't sure what he would do if something happened to Takeru as well.

 

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting to long Blue Girl!" called Takeru as he rode towards her. "I got held up on my end."

"What happened?" she asked as he drew alongside her.

He held up his wrist, "Kusanagi-san had a program to give me first. He wants me to get it to Playmaker."

"Do you know where he is?" asked Aoi.

Takeru sighed, running a hand through his hair. "No. Flame and I lost contact with him the other day, and we didn't have a chance to go look for him then."

"Then we shouldn't waste any more time," said Aoi with a nod.

"Flame, where was the last place Ai contacted you from?" asked Takeru. "Do you know?"

The fire Ignis folded his arms across his chest thoughtfully. "Ai mentioned them walking around the streets and watching other users duel, and that they were going to find somewhere to lay low."

"Then let's start there," said Takeru.

 

"How long do you intend to keep me here," asked Yusaku, following Revolver through the hall.

"I already said you can leave at any time."

Yusaku scowled, glaring at the back of his head. "Maybe, but that doesn't mean I can actually leave. Firstly, I have no idea where this place is so even if I found a door out I wouldn't know where to go from there. Second, I haven't even seen a door that would lead to the outside, I'm not even sure there is one. And third, and most importantly, your scientists still have my duel disk." Sitting around and listening to Vyra, Faust and Genome discussing the coding of the virus seemed like the most un-stimulating conversation in the world, so after Ai extracted himself from the disk and made a perch on his shoulder, Yusaku had left and taken to following Revolver. Though that too was proving to be rather dull as well, and with Specter not far behind either of them it was uncomfortable to boot.

"Considering that you're probably safer here than anywhere else in the system I'm not sure why you're so eager to leave," countered Revolver.

"Because wherever this place is, whatever it is, is blocking my communications," said Yusaku.

"Yeah, I haven't been able to get through to Flame since you brought us here," said Ai. "Which means he can't talk to me either."

Yusaku nodded, "They're going to be worried about us and...I'd rather not make anyone worry. Not anymore than they already are."

Revolver sighed and came to an abrupt stop, hands folded behind his back. He turned on his heel to face Yusaku. "If it would help put you at ease, while you're waiting, I could send Specter to deliver a message to your allies about your whereabouts and condition."

There was the click of feet and Yusaku realized that Specter had come to a stop somewhere close behind him.

"I'm not sure that will help alleviate their worries," said Ai, twisting around on his perch to look at him. "Besides how do we know he'll actually do it?"

"If it is something Revolver-sama requests of me then I will gladly fulfill it," he said with a graceful bow.

Yusaku was quiet, mulling over the idea. It wasn't the most of ideal solutions but it was a solution and if he could at least get Takeru and Kusanagi know he was safe then did it really matter who told them? Even if he really didn't trust Specter he was the only option he had, and it seemed unlikely that he would anything to displease Revolver.

"Alright," he said finally.

"P-Playmaker are you sure?" asked Ai.

Yusaku nodded, "I am. Kusanagi-san and Takeru need to know, and right now this is the only way."

Ai slumped, "I suppose. But I still don't trust them. They tried to kill me."

"You have my word that I will deliver the message to your allies and nothing more," said Specter with a sweeping bow. "That is my promise, and should I break it I'm sure Revolver-sama will punish me most harshly."

"Just go and deliver the message to Playmaker's allies," said Revolver, rolling his eyes.

"Right away." And then he was gone in a flash of blue pixels, leaving Yusaku and Revolver alone in the hall.

"I suppose all we can do now it wait," said Yusaku.

"I suppose it is."

 

"It was somewhere around here," said Flame, pointing to the street below them. "This is where I got my last transmissions from Ai."

"Well they're not here now," said Takeru as they came in for a landing. "I hope nothing bad happened to them."

"Do you think they just might be hiding?" asked Aoi as she looked around.

"They better be, because the alternatives are much worse."

"Not all alternatives," came a voice from behind them. "After all, someone could be hiding him."

Takeru and Aoi spun around and found themselves face to face with a tall young man. His hair and skin were ghostly pale and his ice blue eyes sent a chill down Takeru's spine.

"Specter," growled Aoi, raising her duel disk in preparation for a fight.

'Specter' held up his hands as he strode forward. "As much as I would love for a rematch with you my dear, that is not the reason I am here. I am here to simply deliver a message to Soulburner."

"A message, about what?" asked Takeru.

"Don't listen to him, he's completely insane," hissed Aoi.

"Possibly, but that's besides the point. I have been asked to tell you that Playmaker is safe and sound in my master's care, so you need not worry."

"A likely story," snorted Flame, folding his arms over his chest. "Why would Revolver be protecting Playmaker?"

Specter shrugged, "I don't claim to understand how Revolver-sama thinks. The enemy of my enemy I suppose."

As he turned to walk away Soulburner dashed after him, grabbing him by the arm. "Where's Playmaker?" he demanded. "I need to see him."

"I told you, he's in the care of my master, Revolver-sama. Besides, you should be more concerned about the bounty hunters tailing you."

"The, what?"

"Bounty Hunters," repeated Specter with a nod. "Two of them to be exact, one of which looks like he has a head of cotton candy for some reason." Specter shrugged, "I distracted them for you to give you some time, consider it a gift, but they will catch up to you eventually. So I suggest, you get moving."

"Not until you tell me where Playmaker is!" growled Takeru, tightening his grip on Specter's arm. "I need to see him."

"What, you don't trust me?"

"Not particularly. But I have something to give him."

Specter raised an eyebrow, "Really? I'm sure whatever it is I can pass it along for you. Besides, even if I told you where to find him it's not like you could get there on your own."

"Then take me to him!"

"Aren't you forgetting about the bounty hunters following you?" asked Specter.

Takeru opened his mouth to protest, that the bounty hunters wouldn't be a problem if Specter got him out of there, when Aoi cut in. "I can deal with them," she said. "You focus on finding Playmaker, leave the bounty hunters to me."

Specter sighed, "Well, he never said I couldn't bring anyone back. You just, accidentally tagged along, there was nothing I could do." With Takeru hanging off one arm, he raised his free arm and tapped something on the screen of his duel disk. "It was ever so nice to see you again, Blue Angel." Then he and Takeru vanished in a flicker of blue.

 

Takeru had done a lot of things in Link VRAINS but being basically teleported from area to another was something he had not done, especially not the way Specter did it. It happened quickly, almost in the time it took to blink, one moment he was standing in the alley with Aoi, the next his surroundings seemed to melt away and suddenly he was somewhere entirely different, somewhere completely unfamiliar to him.

"Where, where are we?" asked Takeru, letting go of Specter's arm.

"You said you wanted to know where Playmaker was did you not?" asked Specter. "Then follow me."

"This better not be a trap."

"I told you before, I have no reason to fight you. And frankly I don't really want too," he said with a shrug.

"I don't like this place," said Flame, having shrunk back into the form of an eye in Takeru's duel disk. "I don't like the feel of it."

"I'd imagine _you_ wouldn't," replied Specter. "This isn't a place meant to be friendly to Ignis after all. Anyways, what you're looking for is through that door there."

Takeru looked at the door, then back to Specter, "If you think I'm walking through that first you must think I'm an idiot." He crossed his arms over his chest, "You first, that way I know it's not a trap."

Specter sighed, "Oh very well, since you don't trust me." Without hesitation he opened the door, vanishing into the room. "As promised I delivered your message Playmaker, and I didn't fight anyone either."

There was a moment of quiet before, "Thank you."

Takeru perked up, that was Yusaku's voice, so Specter had been telling the truth after all! With a rush of excitement he bolted into the room, pushing past Specter. "Playmaker!"

"Soulburner?"

Takeru skidded to a stop, the person sounded like Yusaku but they didn't look like him, dressed in black and purple with equally dark hair, nothing like his deep green body suit and strikingly bright yellow and red hair.

"Flame!" Ai sprang up on the purple stranger's shoulder and threw his tiny arms in the air in excitement, face squished up in a sort of smile. "But what are you doing here?"

"My question exactly, Specter." growled the other man in the room.

"Ah I'm so sorry Revolver-sama, he was very insistent on talking with Playmaker and forced himself along with me. There was nothing I could do."

"I'm sure you tried very hard to stop him," dead panned Revolver, arms folded over his chest.

"I have a program to give you, from Kusanagi-san," said Takeru, striding past Specter towards Yusaku. "And, what are you wearing?"

"It's a disguise," he replied, glancing down at himself.

"Do you like it, I designed it myself," said Ai, jabbing his thumb at his chest.

"That explains the gaudy look," said Flame.

"Hey!"

Takeru looked at Yusaku, then glanced around the room, "Where's your duel disk?"

"Vyra and Faust are looking at it, they wanted to examine the virus. Why, what kind of program did you have to give me?"

"It's a communication one, so you can talk with Kusanagi-san again. He wanted me to give it to you. He and Ghost Girl are working on the virus."

"Perhaps it is time we pooled our resources," said Revolver. "Between your allies and mine I'm sure we can solve the problem of the virus."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for this one being short. It was kicking my ass to write so I just ended it. We're in the final stretches tho.
> 
> EDIT: 12/21/2018  
> I made a HUGE edit to this chapter involving the end so, please reread before going onto the next chapter!

Aoi laughed as she tore through the air, the two bounty hunters on her tail. Dealing with them and getting them to follow her was almost too easy, too simple.

"Are you really the best SOL Technology could get?" she teased, swerving through the air. "Because you're not very good." She turned around on her duel board to face the bounty hunters. "If you want to duel, you're going to have to catch me first!"

' _I hope I can keep them too busy to look for Homura-kun_ ,' she thought as she turned away, leaning forwards on her D-Board and shifting it into a dive as she picked up speed. ' _I hope you find Fujiki-kun._ '

 

"So," Soulburner looked around as he followed Yusaku and Revolver down the long hall, Specter once again taking up the rear. "We're in Hanoi's base then?"

Yusaku nodded, "The heart of it, wherever it might be," he said. "He still hasn't told me." He gestured with his head in Revolver's direction and Hanoi's leader simply laughed.

"Of course not, can't have you knowing how to get here after all," he replied with a smug look. "Now, you wanted your duel disk."

"They better not have done anything funny to it!" said Ai from his perch on Yusaku's shoulder.

Yusaku sighed, "Ai, please be quiet."

"Well it's true."

"Ah, back for this already?" asked Vyra as Revolver opened the door. "I'm afraid we're not quite..." she trailed off as her gaze landed on Takeru and she cocked an eyebrow curiously. "Inviting more people over are you?"

"You can blame Specter for the extra," said Revolver with a sigh as he grabbed the duel disk from the table.

Soulburner produced something that looked like a small disk and handed it over to Yusaku as he strapped his duel disk back to his wrist.

"And this will let us talk to Kusanagi-san?" asked Yusaku, Ai peering curiously at the small object in his hand.

Soulburner nodded, "It should."

"I hope I haven't worried him to much," said Yusaku as he popped the program in.

"This is Kusanagi-chan's coding alright," said Ai with a wiggle as the program booted up, having leapt down from Yusaku's shoulder and back onto the duel disk. "I'd know that binary from anywhere. Now, let's see what this thing can do." He cracked his fingers before sinking into the duel disk.

For a few moments it seemed like nothing happened, then there was a crackling like static and Ai rose back out and gave Yusaku a thumb's up.

"Oi, can you hear us?" called Ai. "I hooked up your dumb program."

"Hey now," laughed a warm voice. "I worked hard on that."

"Kusanagi-san!" Yusaku couldn't help but to smile at the sound of Kusanagi's voice, a very welcome thing to hear.

"Yusaku?!"

There was a moment of silence before a woman's voice chimed in from the same end as Kusanagi. "Yusaku? Is that Playmaker's user?"

"Kusanagi-san, who's that?" asked Yusaku.

"Ahh, just some help I enlisted to crack this virus," he replied quickly. "How are you doing? I've been worried, not hearing from you."

"I've been better," said Yusaku. "I'd quite like to get out of Link VRAINS, sooner rather than later."

"If I may," began Vyra, clearing her throat loudly.

Unlike most of their conversations, which were limited to only being heard by two of them (or three since Soulburner has joined) this one could apparently be heard by everyone in the vicinity, as if Kusanagi were on speakerphone.

"Considering Playmaker's current condition it's safe to say you haven't had any luck in purging the virus."

"Yusaku...is that...one of the Knights of Hanoi?" asked Kusanagi.

"It's a long story," sighed Yusaku. "But yes. They're all here actually."

"As I was saying, since it seems like you're struggling with things on your end, might I propose a temporary truce so we can pool our resources and deal with this issue."

"And why would you help us?" asked Kusanagi in such a tone that Yusaku could almost hear him frowning.

"Because quite frankly, we have a common enemy in SOL Technology," said Vyra. "On top of that, they're using a virus we created."

"Except we already tried the restoration program for the another Another Virus and it didn't do anything," said Kusanagi.

"I'm not surprised," said Vyra, folding her arms over her chest. "We've been examining it here on our end, though as I started to say before I was interrupted, we weren't quite done yet." She shot Revolver a look before continuing, "They've modified it, not enough to be unrecognizable from the Another virus, but enough that the restoration program wouldn't be effective. I suggest, we combine what we've found."

Kusanagi hummed thoughtfully on the other end and Yusaku spoke up. "I think we can trust them with this, Kusanagi-san," he said. "I understand your reservations but, there doesn't seem to be much of a choice right now."

"Are you sure about this Playmaker?"

He nodded, "I am." ' _Because I can't stay in Link VRAINS any longer than I already have._ ' He turned to Soulburner, "You too, you should probably leave as well."

"No way, I'm not leaving you alone, not here and not with, _these_ people."

"Soulburner..." He placed a hand on his shoulder gently. "Please, trust me. I'll be fine. But it's probably better if you didn't stick around in this place any longer than you have."

"Soulburner, we should probably go and assist Blue Girl, she might need our help," said Flame, looking up at his partner.

"You were working with Blue Girl?" asked Playmaker.

"It's a long story. Are you sure you'll be alright?"

"I'll be fine. I have Ai with me. And Kusanagi-san can hear everything that's going on."

Soulburner sighed, shoulders relaxing. "Alright. Hopefully the next time I see you will be outside of Link VRAINS."

Yusaku nodded and in the blink of an eye, Soulburner was gone.

 

"I hope Blue Girl won't be to upset that we left her to deal with the bounty hunters alone," said said Takeru as they materialized back in the main hub of Link VRAINS.

"Well she did say she'd handle it," said Flame.

"Still."

"Well well, I was almost getting bored waiting for you boys." There was a light clatter as Blue Girl landed before them, having leapt down from one of the buildings above.

A smile spread across Takeru's face as relief washed over him. "Blue Girl! Did you already deal with the bounty hunters?"

"Of course I did. What about you, get your mission finished?"

Takeru nodded, "I got the program to him. Now, I guess all we can do it wait."

"Do you really think they'll be able to help him?" she asked.

"I hope so."

 

Once upon a time, Yusaku had considered logging into Link VRAINS and not logging out, not until he got revenge for what had been done to him. There was nothing and no one waiting for him outside of Link VRAINS anyways, so logging in and remaining there till he either died or got his revenge had crossed his mind multiple times.

But then he met Kusanagi and suddenly, there was someone else who understood what he was dealing with, what he was going through. Suddenly he had a reason to log out every night, he didn't want to see Kusanagi worrying about him, he had enough on his plate as it was with his brother, Yusaku just couldn't do that to him.

But that was the past, and all Yusaku wanted now was to be able to log out of Link VRAINS.

 

As good a hacker as he was, and as much as knew about computers, Yusaku soon found himself hopelessly lost listening to Kusanagi and the Knights of Hanoi as they talked about the virus and its coding and what to do. Instead he opted to sit down out of the way and let them figure it out, though he wished he could properly nap to pass the time.

Specter had gone, somewhere, Yusaku hadn't even seen him leave and so wasn't even sure when he'd taken off for parts unknown.

Revolver however had not left, though he also was not taking part in the virus cracking, having instead decided to shadow Yusaku, or perhaps he was simply keeping an eye on Ai, who was back with Yusaku as the duel disk had gone back to Vyra's hands. Yusaku couldn't really tell, it was one of the two at any rate.

"You know, this proves what I said before," said Yusaku, looking over at Revolver. "We don't have to fight. I don't want to have to fight you."

"You know that's not true, not as long as you side with the Ignis."

Yusaku sighed. "You say they want to enslave humanity but," he glanced down at Ai. "I don't think he could enslave a cleaning robot."

"Hey!"

"Besides that, it's fairly clear that he doesn't want to," continued Yusaku, "Neither does Flame."

"And Windy just wants to be left alone," added Ai.

Yusaku nodded, "They're not nearly the threat you make them out to be."

"Of course you would say that."

"Revolver-"

"They are a threat that needs to be dealt with."

"Say who? You?"

Yusaku and Revolver turned their attention to Ai, who was standing on Yusaku's shoulder, tiny arms folded over his chest as he glared at Revolver.

"Ai..."

"It's not fair, we never asked to be created. So-so why should we have to die just because we exist? That's not fair." He pointed at Revolver, arm trembling. "Why should you get to play god, who gave you that right?"

"Ai!" Yusaku had never seen Ai so upset before, so mad.

"No, it's just not fair. We never had a chance before you and everyone else decided that we should be destroyed. Why should you get to decide our fate?"

Carefully, Yusaku reached up and cupped his hands around Ai, scooping him up carefully. He could practically feel Ai's rage, his tiny form shaking as he spoke.

"It's not fair. Besides, someone already destroyed our home, why can't you just leave us alone?" Ai wilted in Yusaku's hands. "Three of us might already be dead. I'm sure you'd like that."

"Ai, that's enough," said Yusaku softly. The tiny Ignis slumped in his hands with a huff, arms folded over his chest, muttering 'it's not fair' quietly. Still holding Ai he looked up at Revolver, who looked to his credit to have been stunned into silence. "He's right though you know. They never had a choice." He looked back down at Ai, who seemed to have decided to curl up against his fingers, clinging to his hand tightly. "We never had a choice either."

Yusaku had seen Ai get emotional before, but usually in a dramatic, over the top fashion. This was different, this was almost human. He never talked about he felt about the situation at hand, at least not as far as Yusaku could remember. He always put on a cheerful face, one seemingly unbothered by everything, or at least optimistic about how events would unfold. To see Ai that upset, that angry, it was startling to say the least.

"So, do you really think we're gonna get out of here?" asked Ai, mood suddenly shifting to being cheerful again as he looked up at Yusaku.

"I really hope so. I've been here longer than I would like."

"Good." Ai shifted his position, curling around Yusaku's fingers quietly as silence settled between the three of them.

"So," began Revolver, "The Cyberse World was destroyed was it?"

"It was," replied Yusaku, keeping Ai in place so he couldn't start up again. "While we were fighting atop the Tower of Hanoi, it seems someone attacked the Cyberse world and destroyed it. The same people, it seems, who used Link Magic. That's all we know."

"I see," was all he said in response. "Vyra, Faust, Genome, what's your progress on the situation?"

Vyra smiled, "I think you'll be pleased with our progress, take a look." She gestured to the screens in front of them.

"It was a clever idea on their part, using the Another virus as the basis for this," said Genome, folding his arms across his chest. "But at the same time, that's also it's biggest fault, because we know how its put together."

"If you would Genome," said Revolver, tapping his foot. "An answer please."

Vyra sighed and cut in, "To make a long explanation short, we managed to reverse engineer the virus to see how it was made, and create a program to remove it." She held up Yusaku's duel disk, holding it out to him.

"Is this true, Kusanagi-san?" asked Yusaku as he took his duel disk from her.

"The data and programming looks sound from what I can see, but there's only one way to know for sure."

Yusaku looked down at his duel disk as Ai slipped back in. He'd have to try and log out once again. If they were right then all would be fine, but if they weren't... Yusaku shuddered, he didn't want to think about what might happen to him if something went wrong. It had hurt like hell last time.

"Yusaku?" Ai looked up at him curiously.

"I'm ready. For better or worse, this is the only way out." He paused for a moment before adding in a quiet 'thank you'.

He closed his eyes and braced himself as he activated the log out function. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, then his avatar flickered blue and vanished.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're reading this and read chapter 9 before the 21st of December I suggest you go and reread it now b/c i made a huge change to the end of it as I was not satisfied with where it ended.

"Did it work?" asked Ema, looking over at Kusanagi, concern etched into his features.

"I can't find his signal anywhere IN Link VRAINS," he replied, fingers gliding over the keys. "So it must have. I suppose we'll have to visit him in the hospital to find out."

 

The first thing Ai was aware of when he opened his, eye, was that he had no idea where he was. The room was totally unfamiliar, and boring looking too. It was plain in colour and decoration and deathly quiet.

' _Well this isn't Yusaku's house that's for sure,_ ' he thought poking his head out of the duel disk to look around.

The duel disk was resting on a table, a vase of flowers beside it. Then he gaze landed on the far more prominent thing in the room, the bed beside the small table, the person in the bed. It was Yusaku, hooked up to a multitude of unfamiliar machines.

"Oh, I know where we are, this is a hospital!" he said, clapping his hands together. "Doesn't look like the ones in my soaps though."

A door creaked and he instantly dropped back down into hiding. The fact that the duel disk was still there was a miracle in and of itself, but if anyone found out he was in there, well Ai didn't want to think about what would happen then.

He stole a quick look at the visitor, a young woman dressed in a fairly plain uniform and carrying a clipboard in one hand. A nurse if he had to guess.

She made her way around Yusaku, examining him and the readings on the machines. Yusaku twitched slightly and she jumped, nearly dropping her clipboard in the process.

"Fujiki-san?" she asked, stopping at his bed side. "Fujiki-san can you hear me?"

Yusaku offered no response and Ai wished he could just reach over to Yusaku and call out to him. Surely he should be waking up now, they'd managed to log out after all. But he couldn't say anything and risk giving away his status.

The nurse wrote something down before quickly exiting the room.

Wasting no time, Ai stretched out from the duel disk, reaching across to Yusaku and placing his tiny hands on Yusaku's.

"I bet you're just sleeping, right Yusaku? And soon you'll wake up and be all 'Oh Ai I'm so glad to see you!'." His gaze softened slightly and he patted Yusaku's hand. "You'll be awake soon and everything will be fine. Right, Yusaku?" Yusaku offered no response and Ai sighed and shrank back into the duel disk, but not before giving his hand one last pat.

The time seemed to drag on, the nurse eventually returning, this time with a doctor in tow, and they examined Yusaku. AI listened as best as he could but all the medical terms were lost on him, though from what he did understand it sounded as if Yusaku was becoming responsive and his condition now was more like a deep sleep, rather than a coma like he had been in.

Eventually, Ai settled down and entered a sleep mode, there was nothing else he could really do for Yusaku but wait.

 

"Where exactly are we going sir?" asked Specter, coming up behind Ryoken, who was in the process of changing the boat's course.

"There is something I need to do."

"Do, or see?"

Ryoken drew his lips in a tight line and looked away from him. "It doesn't matter, it doesn't concern you."

"With all due respect sir, it does. We are, quite literally, all on the same boat."

"You don't have to come if you don't want," said Ryoken. "You can remain on the boat. In fact that would probably be wise. Your face is a bit more recognized than mine is."

Specter sighed, "I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this am I?"

"No, you won't."

"Then at least make sure the boat is docked somewhere, hidden."

 

There were very few people that knew the face of Kogami Ryoken, and that Kogami Ryoken was also Revolver. So getting into the hospital wasn't going to be much of an issue, the only person there who had ever recognized him was currently residing in his boat, protected.

The hospital was surprisingly quiet and it wasn't hard for Ryoken to find Yusaku's room, directed there by the receptionist.

Yusaku's room was just as quiet and, to Ryoken's surprise, empty.

Yusaku himself was seemingly asleep, one hand draped across his stomach. His duel disk sat on the table beside him and Ryoken eyed it. The Ignis was in there, even if it was keeping its presence a secret at the moment, and it would be so easy to just grab it and walk out with it. The Ignis he'd been hunting for so long was literally an arms length away, taking it back to the yacht and destroying it once and for all would be so easy. He looked back to Yusaku and frowned, it would be such a hollow victory he wouldn't be able to enjoy it. He wanted to get his hands on the Ignis, but not like this. What kind of a victory would it be, to take his prize from an opponent who couldn't fight back?

"You get a pass this time," he said as sat down beside Yusaku. ' _You'd better wake up Playmaker, this isn't how I want things to end between us. Not after everything._ '

For a time it was near dead silent in the room, the only sound that of the machines monitoring Yusaku and his soft breathing. Then a quiet voice spoke up from behind Ryoken.

"What do you want with Yusaku?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are you here?"

"I just needed to see if we had actually succeeded," said Ryoken.

"He's just sleeping now. He did wake up but it didn't last."

Ryoken's gaze softened slightly as he looked at Yusaku. "I see."

"If you do anything to hurt him-"

"I'm not going to."

The Ignis huffed before going silent and both parties opted to simply ignore each other.

 

Takeru had wanted to visit Yusaku sooner, like 'the moment he'd stepped out of the back room of the hot dog truck' sooner. But the moment he'd done that his legs gave out and he collapsed, only saved from hitting the hard floor of the truck by Kusanagi, who practically swooped in to catch him.

"You need to rest," said Kusanagi as he helped Takeru into a chair. "You're exhausted."

Takeru had tried to protest, he had to go see Yusaku, but neither Kusanagi, Flame nor Ema was about to let him. They all but forced him to rest, insisting he could visit Yusaku the following day.

So the moment the end of school bell sounded the next day, he shoved everything into his bag and was off to the hospital to see him. He briefly considered telling Aoi and asking her to come with him, but decided against it, it would probably be better for him to explain to Yusaku the newest revelations that had come up before bringing Aoi to see him.

"You need to slow down Takeru," warned Flame as he ran. "And look where you're going!" Takeru skidded to a stop at the edge of the road just in time for a car to whip past him. "Honestly, we don't need you ending up in the hospital as well."

"Sorry, I just really want to get there to see him," said Takeru.

"And I'm sure he'll be glad to see you, but let's try to get there in one piece."

Takeru laughed, but slowed his pace the rest of the way to the hospital.

Takeru was expecting a number of things when he walked into Yusaku's hospital room, such as Yusaku sleeping, or even sitting up, he was not expecting to find another person already in the room with him.

He froze in the door way, half way into the room when he saw the man sitting at Yusaku's beside. He was an attractive enough man with snow white hair that framed his face like feathers and silver-blue eyes that were trained on Yusaku. At least until they turned to look at him, startled by the sound of the door opening.

"I'm sorry," stammered Takeru as the man stood up. "I wasn't expecting him to have any visitors. Are you, are you a friend of his?"

"No, not as such." The man crossed the room silently as Takeru jumped aside as he made for the door. He stopped and regarded Takeru for a moment, the teen swallowing the nervous lump in his throat. "He's lucky, to have a friend like you at his side," he said finally before exiting the room.

Takeru stood in bewildered silence, watching as the man made his way down the hall. Who on earth had that been? They had said they weren't a friend but, surely they had to be, why else would they be visiting Yusaku?

"Finally, I thought he'd never leave!" whined Ai as he stretched out of Yusaku's duel disk.

"Ai, who was that?" asked Takeru, closing the door before going to sit beside Yusaku, who seemed to be fast asleep.

Ai huffed, folding his arms over his chest. "That was Revolver, he was here yesterday too you know."

"What?" Takeru raced to the door but it was to late, he was already gone. "Does-does that mean he knows who..." He trailed off as he made his way towards the empty chair.

Ai nodded, "Uh huh, he knows who Yusaku is. Probably knows who you are too."

Takeru's face went pale and he dropped wordlessly into the chair beside Yusaku. "Why aren't you more concerned about the fact that he knows who we are?"

Ai shrugged, "If he wanted to do something to us he would have by now," said the Ignis.

Takeru sighed, hanging his head. "Well, how's Yusaku doing?"

Before Ai could reply, Yusaku made a sound like mumbling and all eyes turned to him.

"Yusaku! How are you feeling?" asked Takeru. "Are you ok?"

"...quiet..."

"What is it Yusaku? Do you need something?" Ai stretched out past Takeru, reaching for Yusaku's hand. "Your good buddy Ai is right here for you if you need anything at all."

Slowly, Yusaku cracked an eye open and tilted his head to look over at Ai. "Be...quiet," he said. "Too noisy."

Ai laughed awkwardly and shrank back, rubbing his head. "Sorry."

"How are you feeling Yusaku?" asked Takeru.

"Sore. Tired." He sighed, "Very sore." He shifted slightly in the bed, attempting to look around. "Kusa...nagi-san?"

"He's not here, but he should be around later when he finishes working," said Takeru. "I can call him if you want, let him know how you're doing."

Yusaku shook his head, "Don't want to worry him." He groaned, moving a hand to rub his head, "How long...since I logged out?"

"About a day, it seems like you've been sleeping the whole time," said Takeru. "But now that you're awake, we have a lot to talk about. Starting with our newest ally."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the final chapter, but it's NOT the end. I still have plans for this AU (b/c it refuses to die). So, here is the teaser for the sequel, by way of the piece of fanart that inspired it, as well as the title. 
> 
> https://twitter.com/shinmeiji0803/status/1037687050982514693  
> See you next time, in Possessed.


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